


When It Mattered Most

by Sam_Grey



Series: Power of Foresight [1]
Category: CrankGameplays - Fandom, Unus Annus - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF, YouTubers - Fandom, markiplier - Fandom, youtube - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, COVID-19, Cloak Brand, Confusion, Ethan Nestor Egos, Fluff, Gen, Mark Fischbach Egos, Mark's got no idea what's going on guys, Self Isolation, Stay Safe Guys, Time Travel, multiple marks, nondescript panic attack, pottery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 20,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23336470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sam_Grey/pseuds/Sam_Grey
Summary: It is May 2020. Normally that'd be fine, but for Mark it is world shattering. You see, the last he knew, it was January 2012.COMPLETE.
Relationships: Mark Fischbach/Amy Nelson
Series: Power of Foresight [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805920
Comments: 72
Kudos: 161





	1. Where AM I?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm honestly not sure where this story's going, but I guess we'll find out together. Mark in this story is from after he has his tumor surgery, but before he starts his YouTube channel. Did you know that apparently if you were to meet your doppelganger in the street next to you, you wouldn't even recognize them because of the completely different lives you've led? That fact's always fascinated me and I suppose it's the inspiration for this fic.

Mark opened his eyes, thoughts coming slowly. He was laying under a tree, the sun barely rising from the horizon. He stretched his arms and heard his back crack. It was sore from evidently lying there the whole night. It was surprisingly warm. That didn't make sense; last he knew, it was snowing outside.

Standing up Mark began walking towards the street a few hundred feet away. Wandering along the sidewalk, he saw an old newspaper on a public bench. An unfamiliar front page stared back at him and he looked at the date and the publishing address.

He looked again.

Rubbing his eyes, he looked once more.

That was impossible. He dropped the paper back on the chair and began to walk along the strangely empty sidewalk.

Struck by a sudden thought, Mark searched himself. He was wearing his rectangular glasses, his new red flannel, blue jeans, and running shoes. His front pockets yielded only an extra button and string for his flannel and a gum wrapper. His back pockets were better stocked. He had his flip phone, but it only had fifteen percent power; he also had his wallet, which had four twenties, six ones, and a handful of change.

He decided to take his chances with his phone and turned it on. Checking the calendar he saw that the news was telling the truth about the date, and the news about the year. He had ended up eight years in the future, in Los Angeles. It was Friday, May fifteenth, six in the morning.

He did the first thing that came to his mind, he called his mom. The number was no longer in contact. Of course. It's been nearly a decade, she was bound to get a new phone by then.

He tried his stepmom, no answer. He tried his closest friend, Tyler, and got the same result. Same thing for Bob and for Wade.

His phone died.

Suddenly feeling lightheaded he sat down, knees buckling. His vision became blurry and he looked down to see his hands shaking. Sniffing, he rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear them to no avail.

He didn’t know what to do.

He had no knowledge of LA, no way of contacting anyone he knew, and hardly enough money to last more than a day or two.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, but only when no more tears would come did Mark stand up. He couldn’t stay there forever. Walking down the street he began to brainstorm.

First things first: he needed food. He had enough for cheap meals for a couple of days, but he needed a way to get money. He could try panhandling, but the thought gave him a bad taste in his mouth.

The second thing he needed was a place to stay. It wasn’t very cold, but he knew the worst thing to deal with were the elements.

Next thing was knowledge. Things were bound to have changed since two thousand twelve. There was going to be a new president, he would need to see if he could get back into school, try and get copies of his ID and social security number so he could get a job until he had enough money to buy a plane ticket. Mark paused.

If he was in the future, what was going on with the him from now? Did he become someone? Was he the person he wanted to be, successful and making a change in the world, someone to be proud of? Future Mark would have graduated by now. Gotten a job.

Mark had no idea what his future self would be doing right now, he'd be thirty now. He had no idea what he was doing. Did he finish his book? Make a successful video game? Get into sound mixing for video games or movies? He must have done something worth while if he was living comfortably in Los Angeles.

Mark was getting worried. The streets were too quiet. No one was outside. He walked along the sidewalk. The houses were clearly lived in with all of the cars on the driveway and lights on in houses. But no one was outside. What had happened?

Mark paused outside one of the houses. There was a sick Tesla in the driveway, way cooler than the newest ones from home. Suddenly he heard barking and shouting from the house and a huge weight collided into him. As he pushed himself up with his elbows he saw that it was a beautiful golden retriever. A man in a fancy looking face mask and gloves cautiously walked up to him from the doorway, noticeably keeping his distance. The dog jumped off of him and he stood up. The man looked vaguely familiar.

"I'm so sorry about Chica, she's usually not like this." The dog, Chica, was jumping up onto the man, trying to lick him. "Chica!"

Chica slowed down, "Chica, sit!"

Chica sat and the man rubbed her head and neck vigorously, "Good girl!" He gave her a treat from his pocket. Chica panted adorably.

The man looked confusedly at him behind a pair of circular glasses and floofy hair, "What're you doing outside? You did see the alert on Wednesday, right?"

Mark sighed, seeing very little point in lying to the first person he's seen all day. "No. I just woke up in the park and I have no idea how I got there."

The man blinked at him. He looked strangely familiar in a way that Mark couldn’t describe. Maybe he met him before he got here, or passed him on the street a long time ago? Mark didn’t know, but the man seemed to have the same feeling.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?" The man was looking intently at him, stepping forward a bit.

Mark frowned a bit, "I don't know. I mean, you look really familiar, but I can't place why."

The man's eyes widened in enthusiasm, and he waved his hands around, "I know, right? There's just something off about this."

"Yeah…" The conversation teetered off a bit and they were just standing there awkwardly while Chica panted between them. Glancing back up at the man, Mark asked, "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but what's up with the face masks, and why is no one outside like, at all?"

The man looked at Mark incredulously (or as incredulous as you can with most of your face hidden). "You're joking, right? You don't actually know what's going on right now?" Mark shook his head, "Where have you been the past eight months?"

Mark sighed, seeing no way around it. He needed answers more than he needed secrets right now. "2012."

The man looked at him with furrowed eyebrows for an uncomfortably long time before gasping lightly and staring at him with wide eyes.

"What, what is it?"

The man suddenly looked around, as if checking for something, then looked back at him. "Come with me."  
The man ran back into the house, Chica at his heels. Not having anything better to do, Mark followed the man into the house.


	2. WHAT'S going on??

As Mark stepped into the house, he noticed that it was a well lived in house, although it was very clean. Not a speck of dust in sight. It looked vastly ordinary, and honestly kinda boring.

That changed however, the moment he entered the main room, right next to what looked like a kitchen. There were giant cardboard cutouts of (mostly) people, most he recognized, some he didn’t. There was also a demon-like gargoyle sitting on a table in the corner of the room and a creepy looking human sized, man-made doll leaning against the wall behind it.

He wasn’t entirely sure if he made the correct choice in following the man here.

Speaking of, the man had entered the kitchen, taking off his gloves to wash his hands. For some reason. He didn’t remove the mask. “Could you please wash your hands? I’ll go get you a mask.”

Extraordinarily confused, Mark turned to the sink and washed his hands. What the hell was going on? It was like there was a plague going around or something.

He only had to wait a moment before the man returned, handing him a face mask with a filter on it. It wrapped all the way around his head and felt weird on his face. 

The man had his gloves on again and handed Mark a pair of his own.

It was odd, both the gloves and the mask felt as though they fit on him perfectly, which didn’t make sense, since he knew from working in deck building that custom fitted masks and gloves were expensive to get Must be a one size fits all or something. It wasn’t very often that he found masks that fit his bulking head.

Leading Mark to the table right outside the kitchen, the man said, “You may want to sit down.”

The man sat at a corner of the table, so Mark sat perpendicular to the corner he was at. “I’m assuming that you have questions.”

Nodding, Mark spoke, “Well, yeah. Uh, w-what’s up with all the face masks and gloves? Why is no one outside? What’s going on?”

The man leaned back in his chair and spoke calmly, “There’s been a worldwide pandemic called COVID-19, it’s a virus commonly called the coronavirus, and as of Wednesday it is illegal to leave your house under any circumstance unless it is a genuine emergency. Face masks and gloves are to be worn at all times. No meeting with anyone that doesn’t live with you. Delivery trucks come by every Sunday with food and supplies for everyone. The only jobs available right now are digital or can be done at home.” The man crossed his arms, waiting for Mark to absorb the insane sounding information he just gave.

He was right. Well, mostly right, it was a virus, not a plague. What was he supposed to do now? He was stuck in the future in a locked down LA. A thought struck his head as he sorted through his thoughts.

“If it was made illegal to go outside, why did you?”

The man reached up as if to rub his neck, before stopping and lowering it, as if remembering something, “Because I saw you outside. You looked lost. I was just going to call to you through the door, but Chica ran out the moment she saw you, and I had to go out any way. Chica’s going stir crazy not being able to go to the park anymore and must’ve thought I was going to take her out.

“If I might ask you a question…?”

Mark nodded, “Yeah, of course. You’ve gotta have questions too, I’d bet.”

The man leaned forward, almost peering at Mark, almost as though searching in his face for something, “What’s your name?”

Not expecting the question, Mark blinked, “My full name?”

“Yes.”

Honestly unsure if he should trust the man, Mark paused. This whole thing just felt weird and wrong. Chica came out from around a corner and put her head on Mark’s knee, almost as though she knew he was worried. Smiling softly, Mark calmed down. “My name is Mark Edward Fischbach,” Mark enunciated each syllable.

The man leaned back and hummed, relaxing his gaze, looking past Mark in thought.

After a moment Mark huffed, “Well? Why was it such a big deal?”

The man looked amused, as though he knew something that Mark did not, which, he of course did, being in the position that he was in. Mark rolled his eyes at the man’s silence and decided to wait until the man chose to answer him.

Luckily for his ADHD he didn’t have to wait long. “It’s a big deal because that’s my name.”

Mark blinked at him, searching the bit of face that he could see. He suddenly realized why everything to do with the man felt strange. It was because it was eerily familiar, yet completely different. Because they were the same person, or almost the same person.

“You’re me?” Mark just had to make sure.

“And I am you.” Fischbach looked amused at his question, leaning his head forward as if to reassure him of the fact.

Mark suddenly gasped, “I own a Tesla?!”

Fischbach laughed. “No, I own a Tesla. We can’t drive it either way,” He said shrugging.

They soon fell into a sort of an awkward silence. Neither really knew what to do. A buzzing sound filled the air and the both of them jumped. Fischbach pulled out his smartphone (a way cooler looking and more advanced one than the phone that Mark had) and cursed. “I’m behind schedule.”

They both stood up, one with purpose, the other unsure.

“Do you work online?”

“Yeah, but I was supposed to start my workout routine twenty minutes ago.”

Mark looked at the older man confusedly.

Fischbach glanced at him, leading them both to a room that had exercising equipment. “I work online, but I keep my day on in a pretty strict routine.” Noticing that Mark was unsure of what to do he added, “You can feel free to join me if you want. I have some sweats in the closet there; you can change in the bathroom to the left there.”

Nodding Mark did as instructed, oddly excited to do something productive while there. Mark ended up barely able to keep pace with the older man. He found himself   
falling behind slightly, but he knew that he wouldn’t judge himself for it, especially since he had his surgery only a few months ago.

“Don’t worry about it.” Fischbach said panting, “I’ve been working on this for months now.”

They returned to the kitchen and Fischbach took out a couple of tall glasses of water, he filled them both then handed one to Mark. While he was taking a long drink the elder said, “I’ll go get you a set of clothes, the bathroom’s right there, you can take a shower.”

Mark nodded, feeling touched at his generosity. For some reason. Why was he surprised that he would be kind to himself? Thanking the man, he turned to said bathroom.

As he got out of the shower Mark took notice of the clothes, all very comfortable looking. Putting them on he noticed that they were all from a brand he had never heard of before, Cloak. Must be the new hip thing nowadays.

Putting the mask back on, he stepped out of the bathroom, allowing his future self access to it.

Mark sat back down at the table to wait for Fischbach to finish, wondering what was going to happen next.


	3. WHO is that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to read and review this, every one I read lightens my day significantly! <3

Mark stepped out of the bathroom, seeing his younger self sitting at the table looking like a lost puppy. He wasn’t sure what to do with him. It was strange, he felt almost... annoyed… by the boy. It reminded him deeply of when he and Ethan visited that hypnotherapist. He knew that he hadn’t done anything wrong, but…

Shaking the thought away, Mark walked into the kitchen, intent on making breakfast. The younger followed him in, standing awkwardly. Taking some eggs from the fridge, Mark turned to the other, “I have some time before I have to get to work, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few more questions. Just so I can get an idea as to why you’re here.”

“Sure.”

Mark turned his back, focusing on the pan. “What was the last date you remember? What was going on?”

There was a beat, “It was January twenty-third, 2012. I had the surgery, I broke up with Abigail*, I got laid off my job. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing right now. I know that I’m only a away from my degree, but I don’t know if that’s what I’m supposed to be doing right now….”

He sounded as lost as he looked. Mark remembered how it was during that time. Life was a nightmare. He could’ve done so much more than he did back then. Mark wasn’t sure if he could say anything to Markle Sparkle back there, but he really wanted to. Did he already say too much?

Mark decided to hold off from giving any more information to him. Better to be safe than sorry. Besides, if there was anything that Mark was sure about, it was that he would not have ended up the man that he was today if he hadn’t faced it on his own. An outline of what his life was going to be like would only hinder him in the long run.

He took the eggs off the pan and onto three plates. This was him from before even YouTube. Damn, Markle is younger than Ethan right now. Shaking his head, he placed a plate in front of the boy, then turned to get the hot sauce from the fridge.

He offered it to Markle, who gave him a weird look. Taking off his mask, Mark added copious amounts of hot sauce to his eggs, “Trust me, once you try it, you’ll never go back.”

Sighing Markle accepted it, taking of his own mask. He added a piteous amount to his eggs, but after a bite, drenched the eggs as he should have in the first place.  
After a few more bites Markle asked, “Who’s the third plate for?”

Before Mark could answer, Amy stepped into the room, in all her glory. Markle, unable to see through the back of his head, simply looked expectantly at Mark.

“I could ask the same thing to you,” Amy looked suspicious, and Mark could only flounder helplessly beneath her gaze.

Startled, Markle jumped around. Quick to defuse the situation, Mark leapt between them, intent on making sure that Amy wouldn’t get upset, “Hey Amy! So, you know me, right?”

Amy folded her arms and gave him a look.

Mark raised his arms in defense, “Of course you do, you’re Amy. Well, this,” Mark gestured to Markle, “is me.”

Before Mark could get another word in, Amy silenced him with a look. “Mark. Bedroom. Now.” Amy turned to Markle and reassured him, “Don’t worry, we’ll be right back.”

Mark leapt to do as she said, already half sure he was in the metaphorical doghouse now. Amy closed the door behind them.

“Mark, you had better tell me right now what the hell is going on!” Amy whisper yelled.

“Okay, okay,” Mark raised his hands trying to placate her, “So I was just going through my daily routine, right?”

Amy looked at him impatiently.

“Well, I was feeding Chica and Henry when Chica ran to the front door. I when to check what she was barking at, and there was a man in front of the house looking at our car. I was going to go out and ask why he was outside; he didn’t have a mask on or anything. After I asked him about it, he said that he was from the past, and I was like, you gotta be joshing me, right? But then I noticed that he looked literally exactly like me from eight years ago. He clearly didn’t know who I was, but I had him come inside. Don’t worry, he’s clean! He took a shower and I lent him some of my clothes! I asked him what his name was, and he said my name. I told him that I was him, and that we’re in a pandemic. I made breakfast. That’s all that happened, trust me.”

Amy sighed, and almost rubbed her forehead before stopping herself, “Why can’t our lives be normal?”

Mark smiled, and put his hand on her shoulder, “If our lives were normal, they wouldn’t be any fun.”

Amy laughed, and Mark counted it as a success. “You’re not wrong.”

Mark bit his lip, “Listen, we can’t tell him anything about the future.” Amy opened her mouth, about to interject, “I know, but he was going to find about the virus either way. We can’t let him go outside and risk possibly bringing it back to his time when we get him back to his time.”

Amy nodded, “How are we going to do that anyway? Do you even know how he got here in the first place?”

Mark shook his head, “No, but I haven’t asked him about it yet.”

“Well, we can’t keep him waiting forever.” She nudged Mark with her elbow.

“True that.” They walked back out of the room together. Mark saw Markle leaning against the counter with his mask on, the dish was clean in the sink. He was tapping his foot, clearly waiting for them.”

Amy stepped forward with her breathtaking smile, “Hi, I’m Amy.” Their gloved hands shook. Amy turned and picked up her still warm eggs, “It’s nice to meet you, Mark’ told me all about you.”

Markle looked even more nervous than before, “All good things, I hope?”

Amy smiled softly, “You’d be surprised.”

Seeing Markle try to wrap his head around that, Mark stepped forward. “Amy’s my girlfriend. I would never have gotten as far as I have without her.”

Amy swatted at him playfully, “Please, you know that’s not true. You’d never let anything stop you from you’re work.”

Mark smile adoringly at her, “Even so, I’d never dream of doing it without you.”

Interrupting their moment, Amy turned to Markle, who was looking uncomfortable. “But that’s besides the point. Mark, do you have any idea how you got here? At this time, I mean.”

Looking helpless, Markle shook his head. “I have no idea. I wen to bed last night the same as I always do, but I woke up in a park down the street. I don’t know what happened. I tried calling people on my phone, but it died.”

Amy nodded, and they all took in the information. Another alarm went off on Mark’s phone, he had to get to work.

Amy, noting what time it was, asked, “You gotta go?”

Mark put his plate in the sink, “Yeah, I’m doing a thing with the others today.”

Markle was clearly curious, but understanding precisely what he meant, Amy said, “Don’t worry about it, I got this.”

Mark smiled, said his goodbyes, and then headed to his recording room, closing the door behind himself. Time for another episode of his revisit of FNaF The Second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Abigail is the name Mark and Ethan used when taking about their exes and I decided to include it just because.   
> (Just fyi, the day that Mark wakes up in /is/ important. First one to figure out why gets virtual cookies)


	4. What was THAT?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I think that I've finally got an updating schedule down! I'll be updating every Sunday and Wednesday. I'll be trying to stick to it as best I can, and so far I'm doing pretty well.  
> I've also got a coherent plot in mind for this and I'm always making sure that I've got at least one extra chapter done before I post a new one. It's almost as though I'm being a competent writer for once, that's new.  
> Enjoy!

After Fischbach left, there was a moment of silence and curiosity got the better of him, “What’s he doing?”

Amy swallowed a bite of her eggs, “His job. He has meetings on his computer and talks a lot. I’ve earned to ignore him.” At Mark’s questioning look she added, “He yells a lot.”

Mark wasn’t sure why Fischbach would yell a lot during a meeting, but elected to dismiss the fact, “I’m guessing that you guys can’t tell me anything about the future?”

She looked genuinely sorry, and Mark found himself liking her, “Yeah, paradoxes and all that.”

A moment more of silence, where Amy finished her eggs, and he asked her, “You don’t happen to have an iPhone Four charger, do you?”

Amy quirked her head for a moment, “We might, actually.”

She turned around and rifled through one of the drawers behind her. It looked to be full of various knickknacks, change, paperclips, and cords. After a few moments she turned to him, holding on of the cords up, “Is this it?”

Examining it, Mark smiled, “Yeah, thanks.”

She waved it off, “No problem. But I’ve got to ask you not to look anything up about the future.”

Mark hummed, plugging his phone into the wall of the kitchen, “Of course, I don’t wanna cheat at life, where’s the fun in that?”

If he were honest with himself, Mark really wanted to know what was going to happen in his life. Although, he doubted he’d find much of it on the Internet. A thought came to Mark’s mind, “Do you work online too, or…?”

Amy smiled, putting her own plate in the sink, “Yeah I do.” She gestured to a laptop on a coffee table in the next room, and put her mask on, “I doubt it would make much of a difference if you knew what my job is; I’m a graphic designer.”

“Oh, that’s cool. I can barely operate Photoshop myself. I’m trying to learn, but you know.”

Amy looked as though she was considering something, “Well- Hm. I’d offer to help you learn, it’s probably not a good idea, all considering.”

“Yeah, future knowledge and all that. Besides, your version of Photoshop is probably different from mine.”

“Yeah, probably.” Mark stood in the alcove; Amy was on the other side. Mark decided to check what his phone was at, more to do something than in an actual interest. 

The phone turned on as it usually did after it died, but for the barest moment his screen was bright blue before showing his lock screen image.

Noticing his surprise Amy asked, “What is it?”

Mark flipped his screen around in his view blinking incredulously, the screen did not change back, however. “I- uh... N-Nothing….”

Humming, Amy narrowed her eyes at Mark, “If you say so.”

“Aaanyway. If there’s nothing else to do, are there any movies you like that you can watch?” Amy looked curious.

Mark nodded, thinking. “Do you think I could watch Iron Man?”

After a moment Amy conceded, “Sure, so long as the volume’s not too loud.”

“Of course, that’d just be rude of me.”

Amy laughed. “Here, I think we have the Blu Ray around here somewhere.”

She began searching the cabinet next to the big flat screen TV, Mark was about to join her and help, but she stopped him. “No offence, but I don’t think you want to spoil any movie releases for yourself.” Mark agreed and decidedly just sat on the couch and waited a moment before she found it.

Amy put the movie in the reader and lowered the volume before handing the controller to Mark. She grabbed her laptop from the other room before sitting next to him on the couch. Amy worked on her projects while Mark watched the movie.

Occasionally, the screen would flash a color, only ever blue, red, green, or yellow. Amy never seemed to see it, even when she took a break to watch with him.  
Mark at first thought that he was imagining it completely, but then it kept happening. But Amy never seemed to see it, or maybe she did notice and chose not to comment on it. But if it was normal to the TV, why did he see it on his phone? He couldn’t have been here for more than a few hours, what was going on?

As the climax of the movie drew closer however, the strange flashes left Mark’s mind. He loved this part. 

After the movie finished, and they were waiting for the end credit scene, Mark heard a shout from a room farther in the house. He looked at Amy, “Was that work related?”

Not looking up from her laptop, Amy nodded, “Oh yeah. He gets pretty passionate sometimes. Don’t worry about it.”

Mark slowly nodded, “Okay then….”

When the movie had finished, Amy asked, “Do you want some lunch?”

“Uh, sure.”

They both got up, Amy saving her work and then closing the computer. They walked to the kitchen.

“How do ham sandwiches sound?”

“They sound wonderful.” As Amy started getting ingredients out, Mark added, “Can I help in some way?”

Looking up at him, Amy responded, “Oh, sure! Thanks.”

“Of course,” Mark started putting mayonnaise on slices of bread, according to her instruction.

Soon enough a bountiful lunch was put together and they both sat down at the table, took off their masks, and ate their sandwiches.

Oh, this is heavenly, Mark thought. And he thought the eggs were good! Man, he really had to start eating at home more often, he missed this.

After they finished, Amy left the table and took the final sandwich to Fischbach and left Mark with instructions on feeding Chica and Amy’s dog, Henry.

He could get used to this.


	5. WHAT do I do?

As Mark was on Night Four when he heard Amy knock on the door to his recording room. He was pleasantly surprised and once again reminded that he had the best girlfriend to ever girlfriend. Taking a pause to eat the delicious sandwich, Mark reflected on what he was going to have to do with his doppelganger.

He couldn't just let him stay here, he had his whole life ahead of him. A life that needed to happen or Mark himself wouldn't be who he was today. But before he could even fathom figuring out how to get him home, he needed to figure out how he even got here in the first place.

Mark finished his sandwich and resumed making the video, mind preoccupied all the while.

When he finished with his outro and was sending the video to Lixian to edit, a thought struck his mind. He could ask his friends! Just because he couldn't let the public know about all this, didn't mean that he couldn't swear his friends to secrecy.

Mark opened up discord on his computer and sent out a message on his main friend group, only the important (mostly) trustful ones.

_ Big E: guys, code red. big problem, need help. call asap.  _

Sure that that would get their attention, Mark waited, playing Clicker Heroes on his phone. After a vague amount of time someone responded. It was Wade.

_ Wubba: what's up? is someone dying? _

_ Big E: yes. chica has turned savage and ate henry _

_ Wubba: well there's no need to be an ass about it _

_ bob: The hell did I walk into? _

_ Big E: you'll find out in a minute _

_ Big E: we need to wait for everyone to get here _

_ Wubba: now i'm really interested _

_ Big E: good, now lets spam the others to get in here _

_ bob: Aye, aye captain. _

_ Wubba: yes daddy _

_ Big E: no. stop that _

_ Wubba: you can't make me _

_ Big E: no, but bob can _

_ Wubba: bobs too nice to do that _

_ bob: Yeah, I'm too nice to do that. _

_ Big E: uh huh, sure _

_ THE crankgameplays: why are you all spamming here? _

_ Wubba: bc marks got something to tell us but is waiting for all of us to get here before he tells us _

_ Big E: yea that _

_ THE crankgameplays: so we're just waiting for tyler now? _

_ bob: Yes. _

_ SmileAlways: I heard my name? _

_ Big E: well that's convenient _

_ Big E: ok im calling, yall better answer, or imma break your knees _

_ Big E started a call _

One by one his friends' faces came onto the screen. Bob spoke first, "So what's so important that you need to call us all with no prior warning and expect us to all be free for your shenanigans?"

Mark raised a finger, "First I need all of you to vow not to tell another living soul about what I'm going to tell you. It is of utmost importance."

Tyler asked, "Is this like a serious thing or a Mark thing?"

Mark gasped, "What's that supposed to mean? I'm always serious!"

All of his friends laughed at him very rudely. Mark laughed, "Okay, you're not wrong, but this is a very serious thing." Mark gave them all a serious look, to prove them of his seriousness.

Wade said, "Alright then, I promise."

Bob said, "I've promised worse things. So long as you're not asking us to hide a body I'm in."

Tyler and Ethan both promised after them. "Okay, okay. I know this is gonna sound crazy, but. This morning. Outside of my house, I found."

Ethan interjected, "Oh, get on with it already."

"Alright! I found my past self and he's currently eating lunch in the kitchen."

They all blinked back at him. Tyler broke the silence, "Are you sure that he's really you?"

"Of course I know he's me! I'm him!" Mark sighed, "Listen, guys. I know that it sounds crazy. I wouldn't believe me either. But I've currently got a twenty-two year old me two rooms away and I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing right now."

"Well," Wade said,"Do you know if anyone else has seen him?"

Mark was infinitely grateful that his friends believed him, "He said that we were the first people that he saw. Me and Amy, that is. Amy's been keeping him occupied while I recorded today, I can't let anyone know about this. Who knows what they would do to him."

A moment passed in silence as they all absorbed the information and thought on what to do about it. Ethan was the next to speak, "Do you think that it has anything to do with  _ them _ ?"

Mark shook his head, "I don't know. I haven't heard anything from them in a few days. If it _ was  _ them, then they're staying really quiet about it."

Ethan nodded. Wade asked next, "Do you think that he accidentally found something like a time machine or something and just sent himself here by accident?"

"No, he didn't have anything other than his phone and wallet on him when he got here. There was nothing other than what I would normally have had."

Bob looked off to the side of his camera, "Well, I have to go, Molly’s calling me.”

They said their goodbyes and one by one left the call. Mark reflected back on the conversation, what Ethan had suggested reverberating through his mind. The possibility that they could’ve done something like this boggled his brain.

If it was them, then the implications of it were insane. The fact that they could bring his  _ past self _ out of the past and into the present is  _ way _ more than they’ve ever done before. But the fact that they haven’t spoken to him in nearly a week is suspicious by itself. Bringing Markle into this whole ordeal only exemplified everything.

Noticing that it was already nearly two o’clock, Mark set about posting his daily video, prepared for a very long wait while it processed. He still didn’t really know what to do.

He supposed that he should go through his life on the daily as though nothing was amiss, but past that? He sighed, got up, got a soda from his mini-fridge, and sat on the couch. Taking a drink of the sweet nectar, Mark thumped his head on the wall behind him.

So long as Markle didn’t find anything new about his life and no one else found out about Markle, all should be well. For now. That was just a short term solution, he needed a long term one. If they couldn’t find a way to send him back on their own what would they do?

Try to give him a life here? Go to the government or scientists? Mark scoffed, like he would let sharks like them have access to himself.

No, he  _ needed _ to find a way to send him home.

Mark saw something dark in the corner of his eye, he turned his head, seeing nothing.

They were back.


	6. Walking The Doggos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one's a little bit late, but I had an issue with the computer and wasn't able to access it all day. This chapter also gave me a bit of trouble along the way, I hope all y'all like it!

Mark turned at the sound of someone entering the room. It was Fischbach, wow, he’s been in that room for a while. Either that or it was just him.

Amy and he managed to get through two more Marvel movies, Captain America and Thor, and she still didn’t seem to be done with whatever her project was. He was admittedly curious as to what it was, but knew better than to look.

As Fischbach came in, there was something odd about the way he carried himself. He looked doubtful, what about, Mark couldn’t tell.

He  _ did  _ notice though, that he seemed tired. Fischbach plunked down on the couch on the other side of Amy and laid his head on her shoulder as she worked. She turned the computer so that he could see it better, ruining any chance Mark might’ve had of sneaking a glance.

As Thor wasn’t completely over yet, Mark turned his focus back to that. The TV had still flashed the same four colors and Mark still seemed to be the only one to notice it. It’s not that they happened very often, maybe only thrice in an hour. It was more the fact that he had seen the movies before and knew that this has never happened before.

Well, it happens here. But not anywhere else that he’s been. Mark hasn’t checked his phone since the first time he did, but he was sure that it would happen again.

There was a lull in the action of the movie and Mark looked back at the others. Amy was clicking away at her computer and Fischbach was smiling at the screen. The light from the screen, reflecting off their faces flashed yellow, just like the TV seemed to be, but neither of them blinked.

He thought that maybe Fischbach might see something, but he didn’t seem to. Mark sighed and turned back to the TV.

Either it was all in his head or it was such a common occurrence here that neither cared to mention it. Mark didn’t know whether he should ask them about it. On one hand, they might just confirm that it was nothing. On the other, they might have no idea what he’s talking about and it’s all in his head and then they’ll think that he’s crazy or something, which he knows that he’s  _ not, _ he knows when he sees something with his own eyes, and-

Mark huffed. He did it again. He focused his gaze on the screen. He needed to stop getting ahead of himself like that. It honestly probably  _ was _ nothing. It’s been nearly a decade in the future, he has no idea what’s normal here. Fischbach might just have an older TV, just because it looked top tier didn’t mean that it couldn’t be old.

Once the movie had finished, Fischbach spoke up. “Is this what you guys have been doing all day?”

Amy nodded, “Yup. Nice and relaxing.”

He turned to Mark, “What movies did you watch?”

“Uh, we’ve watched Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor.” He gestured to the Television.

He nodded in approval, “Classics.” He stood up, “I’m gonna go and walk the dogs, you wanna come?”

Surprised at the invitation, Mark blinked, “Oh, s-sure!”

“Cool, I’ll go get the leashes.” Fischbach walked into the other room.

“You know you don’t need to be nervous around him.” Amy was looking at him.

“I-I’m not nervous.” Mark rubbed his hands together.

Amy gave him a look, obviously disbelieving. Before Mark could retort, Fischbach had come back with the doggos.

“You good to go?”

“Yeah, definitely.” He handed Mark one of the leashes and opened the back door. They started doing laps around the pool. Mark was sure that he would’ve felt awkward if it weren’t for the beautiful pups in front of him. He was walking Henry and the other was walking Chica.

It was approaching dusk and the clouds were slowly turning pink. Fischbach saw his upturned gaze and commented, “Yeah, it’s really nice. We’ve been getting a lot of rain recently. There usually aren’t ever any clouds. You’re lucky it isn’t quite summer yet. Summer’s terrible here.”

Mark was surprised, “Really? I thought summer was the best in California.”

He scoffed, “Uh, huh. Tell that to the months of 100° weather. I’m lucky that I work indoors and don’t have to go out all that often. I’m sure that it would be better if I was one of those people that went to the beach or whatever, but you know.”

Mark shuddered at the thought of the ocean, “Oh, yeah. The ocean’s the worst.”

“Ha, you can say that again.”

The silence around them was now comfortable, and Mark lost track of how many laps that they did. The dogs seemed to love it though.

Fischbach spoke up again. “So what do you think so far of the future?”

“Oh, uh. It’s nice. I haven’t really seen much of it though.” They shared a laugh.

“You’ve got me there.” He seemed to be in a better mood than he was before.

Fischbach slowed to a stop. He seemed to be arguing with himself about something before he looked right at Mark. “I just want you to know, although I can’t elaborate for you, but we  _ do _ make it. You get through this and end up on top, don’t ever think that you won’t.”

Mark was taken back by this. It was sudden, seemingly out of the blue. He really didn’t think about how it would be for his future self, seeing him now at this time. It was like one of those theoretical situations that you read about, like what would you say if you could talk to your past self. Though, Mark supposed, he  _ was _ the past self in this scenario. Then it hit him: what Fischbach had said to him. He was going to make it.

Normally when you hear something like that you don’t really think about it, it’s just something that people say to motivate one another. But hearing it from himself. The one who knew more than absolutely anyone what he was going through right now. Saying that  _ he was going to make it. _ He was going to be someone that he would be proud of, he was going to help people.

Mark was surprised, he never would’ve thought that he’d be getting emotional during the dog walk. He felt himself beginning to tear up and he let out a laugh, “Sorry, I just- Wow. Thank you.”

Fischbach smiled back and put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly, “Of course. Who would I be if it weren’t you?”

Mark chucked, “You wouldn’t be yourself, I’m sure.”

“Well, you’re not wrong."

They finished the lap and Fischbach headed back towards the house, the shadows of the night dancing behind them. Mark felt lighter, somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are my lifeblood.


	7. Night Thoughts

To Mark’s surprise, Fischbach had yet another workout on a peloton. Mark hung out with Amy while he did that for the longest time and then took another shower.

For dinner Amy heated up leftover lasagna in the microwave for dinner, tasting exactly as he imagined it would. Though, if he was the one who technically made it, then that was to be expected.

Once they had all finished their meals, the oldest spoke up, “So.” Fischbach clapped his hands together, “To address the elephant in the room.” He folded his fingers until he was pointing his collective finger at Mark, “What are we, going to do, with you?” Almost as a second thought, he added, “That’s productive?”

Amy looked between the two of them, like a tennis match.

The silence was deafening, and Mark had no idea if he should even say anything.

Fischbach turned suddenly to his partner, “Amy?”

She started, “Oh! Ummm… He could work for you?”

“Nope, paradox.”

Amy tapped her chin, “Oh! Oh! He could work with me in the garage! That wouldn’t make any paradoxes!”

Mark felt like he should be talking, but before he could speak up, Fischbach spoke.

“You’re right, he could. I’ve never done what you do, and nothing about your other job would impact his future, I don’t think.”

Before they could make any definitive decisions for his life Mark interjected, “Don’t I get a say in this?” As both their gazes latched onto him, Mark fumbled with his words, “I mean, it’s still my life, even if I  _ am _ stuck here.”

Fischbach raised an eyebrow at him, “Would you be fine with working with Amy in the garage? It doesn’t have anything to do with technology that’s been made recently, and we can’t just have you lounging around all day doing nothing.”

Mark was suddenly embarrassed as nothing came to mind. They didn’t have anything online that he could work with, as everything was new than he was supposed to know, and he didn’t bring anything with him that would be seen as useful. Realizing that he was just going to agree either way, he huffed in false confidence, “Well, if it’s my only option, then I guess I gotta say yes.”

Amy reached for his forearm, “Hey don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it in no time.”

Fischbach seemed to melt in his chair, “Well now that  _ that’s _ taken care of, anyone wanna play Uno?”

Amy gave him a side glance, “Oh, you’re  _ on _ .”

They made it through four games, (two of which Fischbach won, one that Amy won, and one that Mark won) before they started yawning and Fischbach checked his watch. “Damn, nine thirty already? Welp, it’s bedtime.”

Mark was surprised, “You have a bedtime?”

He received a dry look, “All wise people do.”

Mark laughed, “Yeah, that  _ definitely _ sounds like something that I am.”

Amy suddenly stood up, as though remembering something, “Hey, Mark.” They both turned to her, “Er, the time travelling one, lemme take you to the guest room. Not Time Travelling Mark, can you go get a pair of pajamas for Time Travelling Mark?”

Fischbach turned to leave the room, “Sure thing Amy.”

Amy led Mark to a moderately sized room. It had a bed, dresser, closet, bedside table with a lamp, a window, and a mirror, altogether pretty nice. “I’m gonna go run and get you a spare toothbrush and stuff.”

Only a moment after she left Fischbach came in with a few sets of clothes, “For tomorrow.”

Mark nodded and he was left alone as he prepared for bed; Amy got him the toothbrush told him goodnight, and soon after he was in bed.

Laying down, Mark felt suddenly exhausted. Who knew that time travelling would tire you out so quickly?

He huffed, and turned onto his side. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he could see light from the half-moon streaming at an angle into his room. Being in the future was great and all, but if he were to be honest with himself, he really didn’t want to be here.

Anything cool that he could’ve done he can’t. Mainly because he can’t go outside, but he also didn’t have the money, or any way to do anything in the first place.

He can’t even ask any questions about the future, which made sense, Mark supposed, but c’mon!

He just wanted to see a familiar face. Well, he has, but not really. Fischbach was  _ thirty! _ Mark knew that he wasn’t the same person that he was a year ago, and he couldn’t imagine what it’d be like in  _ eight. _

He hoped that they could find a way to get him home soon, if only so he wouldn’t forget anything from school. Maybe while he was here he could convince Fischbach to get him his college books, he was sure that he’d be able to find them online. They didn’t replace textbooks very often, after all.

But then they were pretty expensive in the first place. Maybe he kept his old ones? Probably not, Mark knew that he wouldn’t do the same.

Did he even want to stay in school? He didn’t even know anymore. He just wanted to be someone that he’d be proud of, and he knew that wasn’t who he was right now. He just wasn’t good enough.

Is this how Fischbach feels about him right now? Mark knew that he  _ would _ be the person he could be proud of, but Fischbach was probably talking about himself. Does that mean that he was disappointed in Mark right now? He  _ did _ seem rather short tempered with Mark, but did that really mean…?

The darkness in the room felt almost oppressive until he shook off the thought; now was not the time to get paranoid about everything.

He was being ridiculous, of course he was going to stay in school. It’s what he’s been aiming for his whole life, and it is what he’s good at. He was going to be a biomedical engineer, that’s just the fact of it. Besides, what else was he going to be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's been reading this, and I'm having the time of my life writing it! Please review, as they are the source of my powers and without them I wither to dust. Love you!


	8. The Next Day

Mark flopped into bed, staring up at the ceiling. He heard Amy move around the room, doing her nightly things, as she did. Then the light was off and he felt her get into the bed next to him.

“Are you doing okay?” Her voice was soft.

Mark hummed noncommittally and instead commented, “I video called the others about this. Told them what was going on.”

He could see her silhouette in his peripherals, she was propped up on an elbow. “What did they say?”

“Honestly, not much. What exactly _would_ you say about it? Ethan asked about the _others,_ but excluding that, nothing useful came out of the call.”

“Well, _do_ you think that the others had anything to do with it?” Mark could feel her gaze on him.

Mark turned onto his side, mimicking her pose, “I really hope not. I mean, it wouldn’t make any sense for it to be them. Why would they have anything to do with this, _how_ could they have anything to do with this? It just doesn’t make sense. They’ve never done anything of this magnitude, and I don’t even know if it’s something that they’re capable of.”

Amy contemplated this, “Didn’t you tell me just the other day that you hadn’t heard from them in a while? Do you think that this is what they were planning?”

“I mean, it’s possible. And I think it’s too much of a coincidence to just dismiss right off the bat.” Mark contemplated, “I actually just saw them a few hours ago, right after the call.”

Amy whacked him, “You saw them and you didn’t tell me?”

“Well, technically yes. But you were hanging out with him, and I can’t very well talk about them in front of him! If he knew about them, then he’d have questions about them, then he’d have questions about me. And he can’t know about the future.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. What did you see of them? Did they talk to you?”

“Just the usual stuff. They didn’t say anything, but I’m gonna try and get in contact with them tomorrow. Speaking of which, are you sure you’re fine with him being there?”

“Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

“I dunno, it’s just….”

“Are you fine with him being here?”

Mark didn’t know how to answer her. He should be fine, he _should_ be fine. He took a deep breath, letting it out tiredly. “You know how I feel about who I used to be, Amy. There’s just so much that I could’ve done _better_ . So much time that I _wasted_ and didn’t _do_ anything with.”

Mark felt her hand brush against his own, and he held it dear. “I know, Mark. But he’s here now, somehow. You can show him what he can do, who he can be. We don’t _need_ to tell him anything. We can _show_ him. Lead through your example. And if there’s one thing you’ve always been, it’s a leader.”

Mark let out a dry laugh, “Well, at least there’s _one_ consistency.”

A minute later, the tension dissolved and Mark felt himself begin to drift off. Before he did however, Amy whispered, “Mark?”

He hummed.

“Do you think that it’s safe to have him work with me? Like, do you think that he might just choose to go into ceramics instead of what you did?”

Mark chuckled, “Amy, do you really think that _I_ would give up playing video games for _my job_ and go into _pottery_ instead?”

He could hear her smile, “Of course you would, you love making mugs!”

“Oh, yes. I would give up every project if only I could live off of making cups. Woe is me, if only I hadn't dropped out of college, I could’ve been a potter!”

They shared a laugh, “Goodnight, Mark.”

“Goodnight, Amy. Love you.”

“I love you too, goofball.”

“Insults? I thought you loved me!”

“Oh, go to sleep.”

“Okay.”

* * *

Morning came quickly, and with it, his morning routine. Making sure that he didn’t wake up Amy as he got up, got dressed, and readied the doggos for a walk.

He heard Amy get up around an hour later as he was finishing up his workout. After he finished, Amy called, “Do you want me to make you anything?”

“No thanks,” He grabbed new clothes from his room, “Yesterday was a one time thing, y’know?”

“Alright.”

Mark came out of the bathroom, prepped and ready for the day, and Amy was leaning against the kitchen counter waiting for him. “Like what you see?” Mark asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She gestured out of the room, “Should I get him up, or should you?”

“I can get him, he probably knows me better.” Amy scoffed at his joke and Mark left the kitchen to get the boy.

Mark knocked on the closed door and announced, “Hey, Markle Sparkle. It’s time to get up, Amy made breakfast.”

Hearing groaning come from the door, Mark knew his job was done. He went back into the kitchen and hung out with Amy. “What’re you gonna teach him first?”

She shrugged, handing him a coffee and sipping her own, “The basics. How to work with the clay and mold it.”

Mark finished his black coffee and filled up his water bottle. “Well, I have some meetings about the projects today, so who knows how long that’ll take. I’ll see you in a few hours, yeah?”

Amy waved him off, “Sure, see you tonight!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one is shorter than usual, it really just didn't agree with me. As always though, I hope you like it, and feed my ever growing ego with reviews, please, I need something to validate my narcissism. lol


	9. Clay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick disclaimer before the chapter: I myself have never taken a ceramics class, and although I have friends who have, I don't really know a whole lot about the process and made it purposely vague, so please forgive me if it's terribly wrong.

Mark rubbed his eyes, sunlight streaming through the window. Yawning, he threw on his clothes and headed to the bathroom. Entering the kitchen, he only saw Amy, "Where's, uh, Mark?"

She looked up from her phone, "Oh, he's doing work in his office. He'll be done sometime tonight."

"Oh. Okay."

There was a plate on the counter which, as Amy made no contrary comment, Mark took.

Breakfast was silent but comfortable, and Amy asked if he wanted coffee or tea or anything, which he declined in favor of water.

Placing his plate in the sink, he asked somewhat hesitantly, "So, what kind of work do you do in the garage?"

Amy looked up at him, "Oh! Did we not tell you?" Mark shook his head, "Along with graphic design, I meddle a bit in ceramics. Nothing super complicated or anything, but it's good enough for a job."

"Really? That's pretty cool; I'm sure that you're great at it." Mark rubbed the back of his neck, he wondered if he should ask now or later. _Well, no time like the present._ "Hey, uh, Amy?"

"Yeah?" She was foraging through a drawer, looking for something.

"Well, I- I was wondering. If um, it might be possible, to like-" He sighed, "I was wondering if Mark still had his old textbooks, and if he did, if I could use them? I'm not gonna go ahead or anything, but just so that I won't be behind in my classes when I get back."

It seemed as though Amy had found what she was looking for, she turned to give him her full attention, "Well, I'm like, 98% sure that Mark didn't keep them after school, but I'm sure that we can just buy you a set of books."

Mark blanched, "Oh, no. I couldn't possibly ask that of you. They _were not_ cheap books."

Amy waved him off, "Don't be ridiculous. It's nothing. We can ask Mark about it tonight, but I'm sure he'd be fine with buying them."

"Wh-What? But-" Mark cut himself off. Nothing? The books were _not_ nothing, Fischbach of all people would know that, and so would Amy. _He_ for one, wouldn't be too thrilled at the idea of buying college level books for a (practically) stranger. It would be _at least_ hundreds of dollars.

But before he could ask her about it, she started moving, "Until then, we ought to start with the ceramics. Have you ever taken a class on it before?"

Taken aback by the sudden change in topic, Mark stuttered, "N-no, it was an elective in high school, but I didn't take it." He followed her through the house.

"I thought not. Well then, we'll just have to start with the basics then."

Entering the garage, Mark was surprised, despite knowing that he was going to be doing. The furnace (or was it a kiln?) was a lot bigger than he expected it to be, and although there were a number of boxes in the corner, there weren't nearly as many as he thought there would be. In the adjacent corner there were a number of pots and other clay creations stacked or in use, such as a few potted plants.

There were a lot more things to do with ceramics than he first thought there would be.

Mark automatically moved for the clay, but Amy caught him by the hand. "Not quite yet." There was a smile in her voice as she spoke, and Mark let her lead him to a stool where she sat him down and went through the rules and safety instructions about the subject.

This took a surprisingly long time, and while Mark was rapt in his attention (as rapt as he _could_ be) it wasn't the _most_ interesting thing in the world. He supposed that that was why they chose for him to do this instead of something else, as while it was cool and all, he wasn't about to abandon all the work he's put into his life for this.

Mark absentmindedly wondered if Fischbach's worked here with Amy, or if he found it just as thrilling as Mark did. He stifled a laugh at the thought of his seemingly strict future self being completely enamored by the pots.

Apparently he wasn't paying as much attention as he thought he was, because Mark was brought out of his musings by a snap of Amy's fingers, "You still there?"

"Yeah, sorry. Just wandered off for a bit."

"Don't worry about it, I'd be surprised if your attention span was longer than Mark's, his is short enough as it is. So just how much of that did you get?"

Mark thought, "I think I got about all of it, I might have missed the last thirty seconds or so." Mark gave her a half smile.

As Amy went back over it, Mark was surprised how much he actually _didn't_ miss, and counted the whole thing as a complete win.

Next they went over the proper etiquette for handling the clay, and a few practices. Before either of them knew it, the clock on the wall read one o'clock and they took a short break for lunch.

Amy took a meal to Fischbach, just like yesterday, and Mark fed the bestest pups.

After the marvelous midday meal, they went back into the garage.

Mark was astonished by just how much really went into ceramics; he never thought that it would be as complicated as it really was.

It wasn't until later in the afternoon that Amy actually got the clay wheel ready for use and demonstrated how to work it, and at least a half hour after that that Mark was allowed to work with the clay.

It felt odd, in his hands. It was slippery and cool, but more malleable than he expected it to be. It was like very wet mud (shush, he knows that it basically _is_ just wet mud), but it didn't fall apart immediately like mud would've. It colored his hands much more quickly than he thought that it would, and he idly wondered whether it stained. Good thing he was just in sweats, although he hoped that Fischbach wouldn't get upset if it got on the clothes.

Together Mark and Amy made something that was vaguely shaped like a bowl. He knew that if it wasn't for him, it would look much nicer, the bowls among the other projects spoke of that, but Mark also knew that this was solely for _his_ benefit, and was grateful to Amy for that.

Amy helped him to smooth out the sides and bottom a bit and called it finished. Once again, Mark was surprised at the time that had gone by during their exercise, almost time for another meal.

Mark sat back in his stool, stretching his legs. They were sore from sitting relatively still for hours.

Amy remarked, "You're a natural! Do you want to keep this one, or put it back with the rest of the clay so you can keep practicing on it?"

"You can just put it back with the rest for later." To be perfectly honest, Mark wasn't super proud of the piteous bowl, and although he supposed that it was a good first attempt, thought that he really could do better.

"Alright." Amy carefully removed the clay from the plate and motioned for Mark to follow her to the sink. They both rinsed off and tidied up the room from their visit.

As far as things to do for an indefinite amount of time, Mark supposed that ceramics wouldn't be too bad of a thing and said so to Amy.

She laughed, "Well that's a relief to hear. Mark nowadays would shudder to think of doing only this instead of his current work."

"What's he doing now? Oh. right. You can't say." Mark looked down.

Amy seemed to have empathy for him, "Trust me, if we could, we would. It's just something that you have to figure out on your own. This _really isn't_ something that you can be led through. You'd be surprised how much the fact that you did it all on your own plays into who you are right now."

Mark felt reassured by this. "I guess you're right. Some things you just have to figure out on your own, you can't have someone tell you what to do and how to do it _all_ the time."

Amy put her hand on his shoulder, "Exactly."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you all you lovely lovelies! To make up for last chapter being the shortest yet, I've made this one the longest! I'm really liking how this is all going, and I can't wait to see this all pan out! Please review, as I need the gratification from it as much as Darkiplier needs revenge on Actor Mark.


	10. Late Work

Mark was finishing up making dinner as Amy and Markle made their way out of the garage, hands slightly off-colored from the clay. Amy and the young’un set the table while Mark took the food off the stove. As usual, the food was no less amazing as he would allow.

They ate quietly but comfortably, Markle seemed much more relaxed around them than he had the night before. _Good, he’s gotta get out of that shell._

Amy set her fork down, “Hey, Mark.”

They both looked up, but her eyes were on him, not the younger. “Yeah?”

She rested her head on her palm, elbow on the table. “Mark-” Her head nodded towards Markle, “Wants to know if you still have your old textbooks, so he won’t forget anything from school while he’s here.”

Mark blinked. He hadn’t thought that he’d still want to study during the impromptu break. “No, I threw them out years ago; but I can order new ones.” He was looking at Markle.

“If it’s not too much trouble….”

Mark flapped his hand, “Nah, it’s no problem. I’m not sure how long they’ll take to get here, but we can get them.”

Markle pushed around what food was left on his plate, and Mark felt the need to ease the sudden tension. “So, how did the convened clay class go?”

Amy smiled, “It went really well, actually! Mark’s a natural!”

Mark smirked, “Of course he is! I’m the best at everything, why would this be any different?”

“Oh, silly me, how could I possibly forget? You _never_ make _any_ mistakes _ever!”_

Mark puffed out his chest, “What can I say, I’m practically perfect in every way.” He floofed his hair up, making it look awesome.

“You’re full of yourself.” 

Mark didn’t miss a beat, “There’s no one better to be full of.”

Amy laughed at him, and soon enough they were all laughing at his expense. All according to plan.

Like yesterday, they played a game together for around a while before they called it a night. But instead of going to sleep, Mark went back to work. He had put off yesterday getting a new video ready, because of how tiring the day had been.

He told Amy that he’d be back in a couple of hours and went back up to his office.

As he said, he would, he went through his emails, answering all of the important ones. He got a video from Lixian and messaged an apology about not doing so yesterday, saying he had a personal problem. He went through and went over a few Unus Annus videos, checking the editors’ work (he was getting the videos ready, he and Ethan switched off every week). It took around an hour to do so, and then Mark set his mind to thumbnails.

He decided to make two, one for tomorrow and one for the video that he missed. He settled on waiting a week to post the video for today, if he needed to skip an episode of recording or got caught up with something, better safe and have a video ready than sorry and miss another day.

The fans would be fine if he did though, they always were when he took time for himself. That didn’t mean that he enjoyed taking time off, he just knew that they would survive. Even _if_ they had to go a whole day without seeing his handsome face.

The thumbnails took another hour to make, and he was feeling worn out by the end of it. Mark onced through his emails again, just to make sure that he didn’t miss anything. He missed two, answered them, and sat back in his desk chair.

Mark rubbed at his face, stood up, and laid down on the couch, his arm over his eyes.

Mark waited. A minute passed, then two. He could hear the clock on his wall ticking, he happened a glance, ten thirty-eight. He sat up with his eyes closed and counted the ticks. He soon got bored of that and just leaned back into the couch.

Just as he was contemplating going to bed, Mark felt a chill next to him. His eyes snapped open.

Next to him, dark, almost like a shadow in the dim lighting, was a figure. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think it _was_ his shadow. But it wasn’t any light in the room that was casting it.

Try as he might, he couldn’t make out any features of the figure, except for the vague shape. But he didn’t try to, he’s known this shadow far too long to think that looking would do any good.

Mark’s ears rang.

He turned to the figure, “What’ve you guys been up to?”

What Mark assumed to be the head cocked sideways. “Nothing.”

Mark scoffed, “‘Nothing?' haven’t seen any of you in weeks then suddenly my doppelganger shows up? How did you guys even manage to do that?”

Mark knew that he was searching for words to say. “It wasn’t my idea.”

“Well, can you tell me who _is_ responsible for it and then get him to undo it?”

“He won’t confess. We’ve been holding an investigation and I can’t find who it was. Whoever it was, he spent all of our collective power to do it. The weeks _you_ couldn’t see us, _we_ wondered why we couldn’t get to you.”

“So you’ve just been stuck, while someone used all of you to bring him here?”

“That is correct. Only yesterday could we finally get back.”

Mark scratched at his beard, “You do all know that we can’t have this happen, especially now?”

He bristled, “Of course I know. This could ruin all of our plans. We all know this. Well, apparently not _all_ of us know.”

Mark nodded. The plans were very important to them. “Let me know as soon as you make any headway.”

He reluctantly answered, “I will.”

“Since it’s been a while, I should probably ask. How’s everyone holding up? No one was hurt at all by the whole time travel thing, were they?”

“No, they all remain as they have been. Simply worn out. They are all on edge however. The fact that one of us can sap from all the others weighs heavily on them. Heavily on me. It is not something that I am alright with.”

“I wouldn’t think so. Do you have any idea as to _why_ this would be done?”

“None at all. But we are working on it, specifically the androids. They have been especially active as of yet.”

“I can tell, I’ve been seeing them on my screens. Let them know to be more careful.” Mark was struck by an alarming thought.

He noticed Mark's sudden change in demeanor, “What? What is it?”

“It’s just- Do you think that the younger me would be able to see you all too?”

He hummed, “I’d imagine not. We came to be from _you_ , he would not have had the time or exposure to create us, and I highly doubt that him being present here would change that.”

Mark groaned, “I’ll take your word for it. Tell them to keep it low though, just in case. If he _can_ see you, I don’t want him to be. He’ll ask about it and then I’ll either have to act like he’s crazy or tell him about everything.”

“Which is unacceptable. That would ruin everything.”

“Exactly.”

Mark stood up, the shadow mimicking him. “As nice as it was to finally catch up, I gotta get to bed.” He extended his hand, and the other grasped it. The hand was cold.

“I shall inform you of any progress tomorrow.”

They shook and Mark turned to the door, he felt the shadow disappear the moment he was out of sight. He needed some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure how many of you guys saw it coming, probably absolutely all of you, but the Egos ARE going to be in the story! I didn't exactly say which one was in this chapter, but I'm sure that you can all tell, it wasn't exactly subtle.  
> I honestly wasn't planning on having any egos in the story yet, but they kinda forced my hand, and no, I'm not at gunpoint, none of them are forcing me to do this whatsoever and this is completely by my own will.  
> Please review! They inspire me not be a lazy idiot and actually do something productive with my life, despite all of my love of sleep. Love y'all!


	11. Days Into Weeks

The next day passed almost identically to the one before. Mark was woken up by Fischbach, ate with Amy, and went to work in the garage. During lunch (PB&J), however, Fischbach joined them.

As he sat at the table, Fischbach said, “I usually come down here a few times a day for snacks during my breaks; it’s just been really busy lately.”

Mark nodded, “Huh. Do you choose your own breaks?”

He scratched his chin, “For the most part, yeah. But not always. I can get really held back sometimes.”

Fischbach was being obviously vague, but Mark was fine with that. He had learned to expect it here.

“Mark…” Amy gave Fischbach a look, “...works for himself. Like, he decides his hours, but he usually overworks himself despite that.”

“Sounds like the same old me.” He looked at his older self and they chuckled at being the same person in the way that you do.

The afternoon went on unfettered, although they finished earlier than they did the last time. Fischbach had just finished his workout and shower, and this time, he just waited at the table on his phone while Amy and Mark started on making dinner. When he seemed to have finished he joined them and set the table.

They had friendly conversation and watched a movie, rather than playing a game. Just like it had that first day, the screen flashed, although, it seemed to happen less than it did back then. Had it already been three full days since he arrived here? It felt shorter than that….

He looked at Fischbach, trying to see whether he saw the flashes, but if he did, he didn’t react to it at all. It was odd, there was no rhyme or reason to the light either. The colors didn’t appear in any specific order, nor was there a pattern to the time between the flashes. Some would happen within seconds of the other, and others up to an hour before the next one.

He  _ had _ to be imagining it.

After the movie, they went to their respective rooms, although Fischbach seemed to have yet more work to do. What does he do each day that requires so much time? That he does all himself?

If he works for himself by this point in his life, did he have employees? A business? Did he  _ make _ things, engineering wise? Mark could see himself enjoying that.  _ I wonder what kinds of things he makes…. _

The next day went by the same general routine they had developed. And so did the one after that.

On the third day the textbooks that Fischbach had ordered for him came in, and Mark dedicated three hours of the afternoon to studying what he already knew and subjects that he had fallen behind on.

A day or two in was when he noticed yet another odd thing about being in the future. The words in the book seemed weird. He couldn’t tell exactly how, and he  _ knew _ that he had no trouble with reading before he got here.

But the words, when he wasn’t focused on the page, seemed to change before his eyes. That is, until he looked again at the page, focused on what had happened, did he notice the words hadn’t changed at all. He could’ve  _ sworn _ that the words had changed. But they didn’t. They were right there, exactly as he remembered them being.  _ But he saw it. _

But did he? It might just be the stress of it all, or the lighting. The books were exactly as he remembered them being back home, if slightly newer.

He pushed the thought from his mind.

As the days pressed on into weeks with nothing happening, Mark got to know Fischbach and Amy more and more. It had been obvious from the get-go that he and his future self were different people. He expected that. But the ways in which they were different became striking.

Fischbach was driven. Even more so than Mark was now. He had always felt the need to excel when he was passionate about something, but it seemed like that trait had grown over the years.

He also seemed to know a lot more. Not  _ just _ the things that he would expect, like the same biomedical engineering as he knew now (he was almost done, there wasn’t all too much more to learn), but just random facts. Like, he knew a lot about seemingly random topics, as though he had just picked up an encyclopedia and read everything about a random thing on a random page simply because he could.

And then there were the random inside jokes that he and Amy seemed to have. They obviously didn’t explain them (or at least not much of them), but it was all just the weirdest stuff. From his brilliant deductive skills, Mark could tell that he still did the same crazy things as he always had with his friends. That was honestly a relief, that they were still there.

Fischbach was also a lot more mature. Well, not “mature” mature, that’d be a stupid thing to do; he’s be the boring-est person on earth if he was. But Fischbach clearly had his life together. He had goals and accomplished them. He still couldn’t tell exactly  _ what _ the goals and projects were, but if he knew himself, and he was confident that he did, Fischbach took much pride in them. Again, something that Mark was glad for.

Then there was Amy. He could really tell why Fischbach liked her, she was very sweet. She always seemed up to helping people, even if it was at an inconvenience to herself. And she was funny. Not just the generic kind of funny, but really funny. She could be sarcastic and knew when it was the best way to make things better, when it wasn’t, and what kind of jokes to make. It was almost impressive. Quite honestly, Mark kinda just wanted to go home so he could find an Amy of his own. But they still couldn’t figure out how to send him back. So he was stuck with Amy as a friend and being slightly jealous of his future self (and wasn’t  _ that _ an odd predicament to be in?).

Once or twice, during Mark’s study time, Mark could hear Fischbach talking in the kitchen, seemingly to himself, but he was probably just on the phone or something.

It was nice how casual everything seemed to be between the three of them. Mark was casually encouraged to do well with everything he did, and it really felt  _ good _ to finally be getting better at things he was doing and being acknowledged for it. Make no mistake, he wasn’t getting a huge passion for pottery, and he still felt iffy about engineering, but it was good to really feel productive.

After a few weeks, Fischbach pulled out a PlayStation 3 and they spent the evening playing video games. To Mark’s surprise, Fischbach was just as good at playing as Mark was. Mark would have expected that a guy as busy as Fischbach seemed to be wouldn’t have the time for video games. This was evidently not true, and his passion for it seemed to be just as great as Mark’s was.

Mark thought back to his high school dream of playing video games all day, everyday, for a living. That would be the dream. But lo, ‘tis not to be so. Who would  _ pay _ someone to play games all day?

Mark remembered something Tom said. That some people would just record themselves playing video games and post them on YouTube. He remembered planning to try it for fun before this whole thing happened. He idly wondered how that would’ve gone, probably not far. It wasn’t like he would be very interesting to watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behold! Another chapter! Yes, yes, I know. I'm amazing for keeping up the schedule and not giving up on it immediately like I expected I would. I was going to write more, to be honest, but this felt like a good place to leave off of. Hope you like it!


	12. News

Mark was downstairs for breakfast today (although he wasn’t eating anything), and he had his phone out because apparently there was going to be an important update on the quarantine from the governor. Amy occasionally stole a glance from him, just as anxious about it as he was, and Markle just seemed to be wondering about what was going to happen.

Mark’s phone pinged as the article appeared. He first skimmed the page, then read it more thoroughly a second time. Amy leaned over his shoulder and Mark leaned back, granting her easier access.

The quarantine was going to be over. Officially, that is, and from an actually credible source. It was still recommended that they wear masks, as just a precaution, but it was no longer a requirement.

Life will be going back to normal.

Having gotten all the information out of the article as he could, Mark passed the phone to Amy, so she could absorb the information as she wished.

Markle said, “What was that?”

“The government sent out news about the quarantine.”

“Good news? Or bad news?”

“Good news, but I want to discuss the facts with some people before I make any decisions on it.”

Markle nodded, after a few weeks of being here he asked more in depth questions about the epidemic, and although they didn’t give out anything that would make it a problem timey-whimy wise, he knew the basic details of it. He didn’t know what the disease was, how it started, the political problems that arose from it, he knew only the bits necessary to satiate his curiosity and fill in any vital blanks.

Amy handed Mark his phone back, and he told her, “We’ll talk about it this afternoon, okay?”

She looked up at him, “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ve gotta do some thinking before it all anyways.”

Mark left the two of them to their business and went to his recording room. Today was Tuesday, Twitch day.

He got on the call with Bob and Wade, and as they normally did, they went over the current events, this time, going over the news that they had just learned.

They discussed possible problems that the end of the quarantine could lead to, and the possible improvements that could come from it.

“Like, how soon after this are people going to be holding big events and conventions? Would more people go to them because they would finally be able to get out, or will those kinds of things just die out because of all the people who are now super conscious of the health problems they could make?” Wade was talking.

“Well, that’s the question, now isn’t it? Now that these things are going to be possible again, how will they change after this? or will they at all?” Bob added, “Personally, I probably won’t be going to as many events, maybe only one or two a year. Are other people going to do the same thing? There are all of these things that have always happened, but we never really thought about because that’s just how things have always been. Like the Pax plague, or-or- what was it called?” He snapped his fingers, “The Pax Pox! A ton of people would get sick because of the huge amount of people and diseases going around. How many people are really going to be keeping that kind of thing in mind now?”

“You make a really good point, because although some people aren’t really affected at all by Pax Pox, I would  _ always _ get sick after or during a convention.” Mark said. “I, for one, am not planning to go to any more conventions. Just thinking of going to just-just these cesspools of bacteria, and all that closed in stuffy air is just, ugh. It was always just a subconscious thing that I knew, but now that I’m really conscious of it all, I don’t know how I’d be able to stand it all.”

“Exactly! Out of all the people that used to go to these kinds of things, how many aren’t? How many are going to go to much fewer that they used to? How many are going to go to more because of the want for human interaction and how many are going to be repulsed by it  _ because  _ of all the human interaction?” Wade was speaking again.

They went on like this for a little while longer, and discussed a few other topics along with it, including the new stamps that they were going to sell. After around thirty minutes to an hour of talking they moved on to video games, and played those for a few more hours.

When Mark ran out of time he raided Wade’s stream and called Ethan. They  _ were _ planning on recording a few Unus Annus videos that day that Amy had recommended to them, but with the end of quarantine, he and Ethan needed to discuss what they were going to do now that it was over.

Ethan answered. “You’ve read the article, yeah?”

“Wow, okay, not even a “hello, how are you?’”

“Yeah, hi, what’s up.”

Mark laughed, flabbergasted, “What was that?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing. I’m just a little bit excited to finally go out and do things.”

“A little? Dude, you are not fooling  _ anyone. _ ”

In the end, they decided to record a few videos right then for that week, and then get out and do things the next week. After they were finished recording everything Ethan asked, “Hey man. It’s been a few weeks since we last talked about  _ him _ . Did the others ever figure out who did it?”

“Well, haven’t figured out  _ exactly _ who it was, but a lot of them suspect that it could’ve been either Host or Annus. We still don’t know why yet.”

“Why do they think it was them?”

Mark blew out a breath, “Apparently -and I don’t know  _ how _ we missed this- but he got here on the exact day that the channel was half over. And I think that they suspect the Host because he’s one of the few that  _ could _ do it, and I’ll admit, it sounds just like the kind of thing that he would try and come up with.”

Ethan took a moment, “Well, if it had to do with Annus, do you think that I should come over?”

Mark thought about it, “Maybe. It might not be him, but even if it isn’t your coming over might actually help with it.”

“Huh. It’s a good thing that my schedule’s pretty empty at the moment, isn’t it?”

“Dude,  _ everyone’s _ schedule has been pretty empty lately.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong.”

“How does Thursday work for you?”

“Yeah, Thursday’s good for me.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then.”

“Yeah, see you then.”

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

The call was cut off and it was well into the evening. Mark left the recording room and went on to complete his evening routine and as dinner was being prepared, he fetched Markle from his room.

They were gathered once again around the table, and Mark decided to lead the conversation. “So, there has been news.”

“Well I know that bit. What about the news?”

“The quarantine is officially over.” Mark took a drink out of his glass.

“So we can finally go out and stuff?”

“Yes. Well,  _ we _ can go out,” Mark gestured to himself and Amy, “ _ You _ still can’t. We can’t run the risk of someone recognizing you or that there are two of me.”

Markle sighed dramatically, “So nothing’s changed really for my situation?”

“Not that I can think of, no. Sorry.” There really wasn’t anything that they could do more for his situation, and Mark kinda felt bad for him. For everyone else, it was a choice to stay inside, but for the kid, he  _ had _ to. There wasn’t really an either or anywhere in his situation.

“No, it’s fine. It’s good for everyone else, though.”

Mark wanted to lighten his mood, “There  _ is _ something that we’ve done, though.”

Markle perked up, “Really? What?”

“I’ve been talking to some people, and we are narrowing down what we believe is the cause of your temporal issue. I’m having a friend of mine come over on Thursday who’s gonna try and help.”

Amy raised her eyebrow, “Who’s coming over?”

Mark thought for a second, “The soft boi.”

Amy nodded, “Ah, the soft boi.”

“Am I supposed to know who that is?” Markle was confused.

Mark shook his head, “No, and since you’d recognize him if you saw him in the future, I don’t think that you’re going to be able to meet him yet.”

Markle pouted, “Aw!”

“Don’t worry, you’ll meet him eventually.”

“I’ll meet everyone  _ eventually. _ ”

“You will!” Mark smiled, “Trust me, you’ll be happy when you do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The talk between Mark, Bob, and Wade is based heavily on a stream that they did a few weeks ago and during the stream this week they spoke about selling stamps to support the postal system and I thought that I'd include it here. We're getting closer to the end now, and I hope you guys like it thus far as much as I do writing it!  
> I don't know if any of you have ever seen JoJo, but I just finished the second season, and it's an odd show. Very Bizarre.  
> Don't forget to review and sell your soul to the Dark One, giving us two more years of life before the End! <3


	13. Day Off

Mark could tell that the kid was excited to finally have something to look forward to. The rest of the night they were all in high spirits, hopeful that they could get him back. Mark decided to take the next day off; he’s only had a few since Markle got here.

He spent the day lounging around and helping Amy and Markle with whatever they were doing, whether it be fetching things for them or just cleaning up around the house. He spent an hour or two just answering all of his text messages, deciding to get it all out of the way while it was still somewhat manageable.

Markle was too excited to effectively study, so he and Mark spent the afternoon playing video games while Over the course of him being here, Mark has found himself and himself becoming surprisingly close. They both were able to understand each other in a fundamental way that he doubted anyone else would be able to understand.

When they played co-op, they could find themselves predicting what the other would do and would get through levels faster than Mark would with people that were of a subpar level to his greatness.

They joked with each other and Mark found himself really having fun. It was different than when he would play with his friends, but it was a good different. He could see himself missing their interactions.

“So what’s it like?” Mark asked as they were killing zombies.

“What?”

“Being in the future, meeting me and Amy?”

“It’s  _ really _ weird. Both more boring and less boring than I thought that it would be.”

“I know, right? We always imagine these things as like, one meeting between the two people and then they’d go their separate ways.”

Mark saw the screen flash blue as it usually does when the others are up to something and his history at Five Nights at Frombo’s and being used to it kept it from startling him. However, as he was in the middle of a conversation with Markle, he saw the other jump. Mark was immediately concerned. Did he see that? Has he  _ been able _ to see it all this time, but they just never notice? Surely Markle would’ve told him if he saw them, right?

Mark decided to just test the subject, “Hey, Mark?”

“Yeah, Mark?”

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

Why was he pretending not to have seen anything? Did he think that Mark would judge him for it or something? “You jumped.”

He seemed reluctant to say what had happened. Maybe if Mark admitted to seeing it too, he could figure out how long he’s been able to see them. “Was it the light? The flashes of light?”

He seemed to sag in relief. “So it’s not just me?”

“Have you been seeing them all this time and just decided not to mention it?” Mark was astonished.

“Well, I thought that it might just be the TV’s fault or something that was normal nowadays!” Markle was defending himself.

“Why would it be normal for a TV Flicker like that?”

“You could’ve just had a broken TV and be used to it, how would I know that it wasn’t normal?”

“Why would I keep a broken TV? I would just buy a new one!”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because big TVs like that are expensive?”

“Not to me they’re not!”

“Well if it’s not the TV then what  _ is _ it?” Markle demanded, folding his arms.

Silence. Obviously Mark would be able to answer, but the question was whether he should. He really didn’t think this through, Markle had really believed it to just be the TV, but since Mark had denied it, he was now expecting an actual reason for the Flickers. Did he only see the Flickers or had he noticed more of the Alterations? This was getting counterproductive very quickly.

The sun was going down and the room seemed to get darker as it did, Mark tried to do damage control.

He sputtered, “W-Well, it’s just a scratched disk, clearly.”

Markle’s superior intellect broke right through Mark’s valiant efforts, “So  _ all _ of your disks are scratched? Along with the digital ones?”

“Maybe.”

He was very clearly unimpressed. “Dude.”

Mark floundered, “Well it’s not as though you’ll believe me even if I told you!”

“What could it possibly be that is so crazy that I wouldn’t believe you?”

Before Mark could answer, he was saved the embarrassment by the sudden chill of a shadow next to him. They were sitting on the couch, with Mark the closest to the dark window and Markle sitting in the middle of it. Just beyond the couch, what almost looked like a three-dimensional shadow was standing next to Mark. Their ears rang.

Markle jumped back, “What  _ is _ that?!”

Before Mark could reassure him, He turned the featureless figure, “Does that mean that we’re on the same page here?”

The head nodded, “It does.”

“Names?”

“It should be fine.”

Mark turned back to the kid, “Don’t worry, he’s just… a shadow.”

“What kind of shadow _talks?_ _How_ does it talk?”

Mark rubbed his head, “I don’t actually know. He just does.”

The shadow gave the impression of leaning against the wall. Somehow. “I came to be through the Internet. A few others and myself have been working to find out  _ how _ this happened, but that is all beside the point.

“We are extensions of Mark,” His voice sounded like theirs, but different, deeper. He gestured to the oldest of the two Marks present. “As more people learn of us, and think of us, the more we seem to be visible in the physical world.”

Markle was bewildered, “Other people know about this?”

Mark jumped in, “Well, they don’t know that they’re real, but they do know  _ about _ them. See, I-” Should he really be telling Markle this? Wouldn’t it ruin everything? He looked to Dark, who nodded. Guess he should then. “I make videos, for a living.”

“What? Like-like YouTube?”

“Yeah, YouTube. I create various kinds of content and occasionally tell stories. A number of my stories have  _ him _ in them, Dark.” He gestured to the figure,” Nearly  _ all _ of the characters in my stories are played by me, and we suspect that this is why they are here.”

“So, what? You have fictional characters stuck in your head?”

Mark tilted his head and squinted in thought. “In a manner of speaking. Although I usually rarely see them. Only when they come forward like Dark did now, or on the screen like the Flickers do, do I see them. We didn’t think that you’d be able to see them at all though, because you didn’t know about them. I guess we were wrong about that.”

“I mean, I  _ guess _ that makes sense.” They sat in thought for a while, chewing tidbits of information.

Mark’s face went slack with revelation,  _ “Of course!” _


	14. She Knows

“It’s so obvious!” Fischbach exclaimed.

“What is it now?” Mark was tired of plot twists in his life and he really didn’t need another one.

“How did _neither_ of us even _think_ to consider it?!”

“Consider _what?”_ Why doesn’t he just say what was on his mind?

Fischbach turned and grasped him by the shoulders, _“I don’t remember any of this.”_

“.... Oh.”

It was such an obvious thing that apparently neither of them had even considered it. Wouldn’t Fischbach _remember_ that he had been sent to the future? Wouldn’t they have been able to send him home straight away if Fischbach remembered this? How had they not noticed that they were both in the dark about the situation?

Mark grabbed Fischbach’s forearms. _“How?”_

They stared at each other intently. _“I don’t know.”_

No one could tell just how long they stayed that way, but they didn’t snap out of their reverie until the ringing in their ears suddenly stopped, and they jolted out of it, looking around. Dark had gone back to wherever it was that he was before he came here.

They looked again at each other with renewed fascination. Fischbach spoke excitedly “Are we even the same person? Was this only time travel or are we from different worlds entirely? Is this exactly what we think it is and I somehow forgot about this, or is this something else entirely?”

They began quizzing each other about aspects of their lives, trying to see if there was any difference, but after every question they were only more certain that they had the same shared past.

But before they could think to ask any other existential questions, they heard the front door open and Amy walked in with an arm full of groceries.

She saw their starstruck faces and asked, “What’ve you guys been up to?”

They spoke simultaneously.

“Nothing at all!” Mark didn’t know whether Amy knew about the ghosts, or whatever they were.

“He knows about the Egos!” Apparently they are called Egos. Of course they are.

Amy just continued to the kitchen, “Yeah, I thought that we all knew that?”

Fischbach leapt from the couch and followed her, instinctively taking the food from her and putting the items away; Mark went after them and helped. He had grown very familiar with the house throughout his stay.

“How did you know? _He_ didn’t even know that it was what they were!” Fischbach inquired of her.

“It was obvious.”

“No it wasn’t!”

“Yeah, it was. He did the same exact things that you did when you first found out that they were real. He just didn’t say anything about it.”

Fischbach was speechless, and so was Mark. She was a lot more observant than Mark had originally thought that she was. Rather than waiting for the awed silence to continue Amy said, “So you told him about them all?”

“Yeah, I told him the gist of it all.”

“By which he means just enough so I’m not completely and hopelessly confused.” Just because Fischbach had told him _what_ was causing all the oddities about being in the future didn’t mean that he had any idea of _how_ it happened.

“Mark,” Amy had an odd tone to her voice and Fischbach immediately looked sheepish.

“We were kinda busy having our minds blown that it didn’t actually matter if he knew everything about the future because he wasn’t going to remember any of it.”

“Oh? And how’d you figure that out?” Amy took out some soup cans for the evening meal.

“Because _I_ can’t remember any of it. So if _I_ don’t remember it, _he_ won’t either.”

Amy blinked at the two of them. “Oh.That makes sense.” There was a pause and then she turned to Fischbach, “Why didn’t you realize that earlier?”

Mark was suddenly very glad that it wasn’t him doing all the talking right then, Fischbach clearly didn’t expect to have the conversation against him so quickly, he stuttered, “Fjdfh, I don’t know! Maybe because we’ve been constantly trying to avoid confronting him about anything future related?”

She shrugged, “I’m just saying. So what kind of things has he seen?”

Fischbach opened his mouth to answer before halting. Mark hadn’t said anything about what he’s seen other than the flashing lights. “I- I don’t really know. He’s only told me about seeing the Flickers.”

They both looked at him expectantly, “Well, that’s just the main thing that I’ve noticed. What else should I be looking for?”

Fischbach waved his hand thither. “Just things that wouldn’t normally happen, Altercations. Like screens Flickering, seemingly random impulses, shadows seeming darker or heavy for no reason, written words looking weird, an impulse to use odd accents, saying ‘dude’ and ‘bro’ a lot, clocks ticking louder, wanting to cook, random urges of possibly violent jealousy over someone, craving peanut butter, feeling as though your imminent death is coming, wanting to sing, narcissistic levels of confidence. Just little things like that.”

“Okay, wow, um, not nearly that many!” Mark was astounded that so many things apparently went on in Fischbach’s head, “Only three or four of those I think I’ve experienced.” Mark lifted up his hand to list things off on his fingers, “I’ve noticed the ‘Flickers,’ I _think_ that the shadows have been darker? The words in my textbooks have been a little off kilter, I’ll admit. Uhh, maybe the clock thing? I haven’t really seen many traditional clocks here, though.”

“Yeah, that’s because the ticking gets annoying after a while.” Fischbach looked at the ground as though he was remembering something, then he snapped out of it. “Nothing else though?”

“Well, nothing that I’ve noticed. I might be cooking more often, but I think that’s mostly due to circumstance.”

Fischbach lifted his hand and made a sort of an ‘L’ shape under his chin and across his mouth with his fingers, before swiping them down and gesturing with them. “Okay, that’s good though. That means that you aren’t seeing them nearly as much as I thought you were. That would’ve _really_ thrown you for a loop.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Mark met his gaze and held it, Fischbach motioned for him to continue, “Was each thing on your list of… Altercations… a different Ego, or did some of them have multiple things?”

“It depends. For the most part they only each have one thing, and the less well known they are the less obvious their effect is, and vice versa. But when multiple Egos have the same Altercation it makes it much more noticeable. For example, I have multiple Egos that have accents, even though most of them aren’t very well known; this makes it so that the urge to use accents is just as noticeable as say being more confident.”

Mark nodded, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Oh, and as far as the number of them go…” Fischbach looked at nothing for a beat, and Mark assumed he was counting. Man, with as many effects as Fischbach listed, Mark wouldn’t be surprised if he had over a dozen Egos. “Well, I haven’t numbered them in a few months, but I’m pretty sure that they’re in the thirties now.”

“... _What?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the random stop in updates, especially after that pseudo cliffhanger last chapter. I had my wisdom teeth taken out and took some time off to recover. Then things came up in my personal life, then last week happened, so... yeah. We're very close to the end of this thing though, so I'm back to updating again.  
> I actually have a list of what all the Egos do to Mark, and if any of you are interested in it the I can probably include it as a chapter or something (and yes, I did count thirty Egos, although I'm sure I probably missed the more obscure ones).  
> Reviews are the blood that keep this thing alive and they make me happy.  
> Happy Pride Month everyone, and I sincerely hope that you all stay safe, especially now of all times. <3


	15. What Is Up (My Cranky Crew)?

The next day Mark woke suddenly. He, Fischbach and Amy had stayed up much later than usual so as to get Mark to understand exactly what the Egos were and how they all came to be. A lot of it didn't really make any sense, but he now felt that he had a firm grasp on the situation.

Something that he _loved_ doing though, was going through all of Fischbach's projects and skits with the pair of them. What he had done truly put Mark in awe, it was exactly what he could see himself doing, and it finally put a face to what he had speculated Fischbach had been doing every day in his office.

Mark really knew now what he wanted to be, could (literally) see himself accomplishing it, and felt an odd sort of pride in seeing it helping so many people. As it got closer to midnight however, Fischbach had them all get to bed. They had sorted through nearly all of Fischbach's projects and were getting pretty tired. (Although they were only able to get through a third of the endings for A Heist With Markiplier (holy _hell_ he had gotten better at singing!)).

It didn't take Mark very long to get to sleep, thanks to a technique he learned in college that helped him fall asleep within moments.

Mark opened his eyes just moments before Fischbach knocked on his door. It had become such a habitual thing that it was automatic. He rushed to get ready, today was the day that Mark's friend, whose name he still hasn't caught, was coming to visit to see if they could find a way to send him back.

The eggs were already ready and he joined the pair of them at the table. Mark anxiously waited for the person to get there, it was the middle of the morning and they were due to arrive at around noon. "Who is the person that's supposed to be coming?"

He received a confused look, "Didn't I already tell you?" He shook his head, "It's Ethan."

"Ethan? That guy that you co-host a channel with?"

Fischbach spoke through a mouthful of eggs, "Yup."

Mark bit on that, "How did you say you met again?"

"He did a backflip for me at a convention once or twice and I hired him as my editor, now he's one of the gang."

"Huh."

The day went on as it normally did, with Amy and Mark hanging in the garage and Fischbach in his office. Mark was proud of how much better he had gotten over the past couple of months and he was almost if not on par with Amy. If he were at all sentimental about things he would've wanted to take one or two of them home with him.

That day they were finishing up the glazing on a few cups, but it seemed that neither he nor Amy could focus much on it. By the time lunch had rolled over they hadn't finished nearly as much as they had planned.

All three of them were in the midst of eating when the front door was knocked upon. Fischbach got up to get it as Mark moved to the edge of his seat, Amy looking at them both with amusement.

Mark could hear voices from the front hall, before they went quiet. Footsteps approached the room and a man a few inches shorter than himself came in just after Fischbach.

Mark stood up to greet him, "Hi, my name's Mark. But you probably already knew that." He cringed at his own awkwardness but Ethan didn't seem to notice it.

"Naw, it's good to meet you, man. I'm Ethan." They shook hands and both sat down on the table.

Amy asked Ethan, "Do you want a sandwich or something?"

"No thanks, I had Chipotle before coming over."

They all just sat in silence before Fischbach spoke up. "So how're we going to do this?"

Ethan bit his lip, "Should we get the death bois first, or the team leaders?"

Fischbach pshawed, "Of course you call them that. We should probably have Dark and Blank chat it out before anything."

"Wait, Ethan has his own Egos? I thought that only you did." Mark was confused.

"What? No." Ethan answered first. "Mark might've been the first to get his Egos and he might have the most, but there are a lot more YouTubers than him who have them."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah." Ethan listed his fingers, "There's him, me, Seán, Felix, Matt, Thomas, Nate. We've got a whole group chat with all of us."

"But since Ethan's the one closest in the area I've only told him about it." Fischbach interjected. "Although now that I think about it, Matt probably could've helped all of us figure this out much more quickly."

"Hey, yeah!" Ethan pointed at Fischbach, "Why didn't you tell _him_ about this?"

Not wanting to dig himself into another hole, Fischbach changed the subject, "Doesn't matter, he's not here now, so there's no use asking that."

"Well if you say so." Ethan seemed to find amusement in his reply and so did Mark. "Anyway," Ethan turned back to Mark, "Blank is my best known Ego, or he was, a lot of people seem to know about Unus, but Blank is still the one in charge. Just like Dark is the top dog of Mark's Egos."

Mark nodded, it made sense.

"Well, let's get to it." Fischbach brought the chatter to a close.

The oldest two men looked at each other and nodded before closing their eyes, Mark and Amy sat back and watched as they did their thing. It was different than when Mark saw Dark the night before. Instead of a quiet shadow growing in a corner, there was the image of an actual person in a white suit sitting in the chair next to Mark. A faint outline of blue and red was around him, and although he could now make out the features, they were blurry and translucent. The chair and table next to him seemed to drain of color and there was a ringing in the air.

Oddly enough, the figure that Ethan seemed to be summoning was almost opaque comparatively and looked much less intimidating than Dark. Blank looked just like Ethan, but paler with solid black eyes and dark tear tracks down his face. He was wearing a pale dark blue hoodie and black jeans, with his feet up on his chair and knees up to his chest.

"You called?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning on making this chapter longer, but it just felt like the right place to leave off on, y'know? I'm thinking that maybe two or so more chapters and this'll be finished.  
> Anyway, I love all y'alls and adore every review I get, no matter how long or short they all have their place in my heart. <3


	16. Foresight

Fischbach spoke first. “Have you guys managed to figure out who did it?”

Dark and Blank nodded simultaneously, but Blank was the one who spoke first. “Dark and I have been collaborating on this and it was found that Annus and Unus together with the Host.”

Ethan looked shocked. “Unus was in on this? But none of you were active when the little Mark showed up! How could he have been part of it?”

Dark gave him a dark look. “It might have been less noticeable for you, as you are not in regular correspondence with your Egos, but as it is with Mark, e’en though we aren’t always seen, we are always doing something.”

Ethan was sheepish, “Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

Fischbach leaned forward in his chair, and looked at his lookalike. “So they worked together on this? How?”

“Yes, that’s what he said. I, myself, am not entirely sure how it was done, as your energy and ours is only vaguely connected. Mayhaps we Egos are of a different plane of existence and can access it equally? We don’t yet know. What we  _ do _ know, however, is that neither of us had the ability to contact either of you for the time leading up to his arrival and that Unus, Annus, and the Host were the ones leaching our power to make it happen.”

They all seemed to munch on that for a moment. Fischbach spoke again, this time to the both of them. “Could we speak to them?”

Another simultaneous nod, Blank was again the one to speak, “Later, Eef.” Before Mark could so much as blink, the two of them were gone. Only a moment later Fischbach and Ethan were back to closing their eyes in concentration.

In Blanks spot another figure was appearing. He looked exactly like Ethan in every regard except for his black painted nails and solid black suit. Where Dark once sat now sat a man in a tan trench coat with bandages across his eyes  _ (Was that blood??) _ , he had a blond streak in his hair. On the seat next to the man was yet another person in a suit. This one had a white suit like Dark did, but was solid white, rather than blacks, whites, and greys. He also had white painted nails and looked much more alive and colorful than Dark had. None of them seemed to affect their surroundings like Dark had, but Fischbach’s still seemed to be slightly fuzzier than Ethan’s.

The seemingly blind one started muttering something the moment he appeared, although it was whispered so lowly that Mark would’ve had to strain to hear him. Mark asked, “So I’m 80% certain that that one’s the Host, but which ones were Unus and Annus again?”

Ethan’s suited man raised his hand, “I’m Unus, and that is Annus.”

“How come you’re less blurry than Mark’s?”

Annus said, “That’s because Mark has so many more of us than Ethan does. We all use the same energy, so we don’t spend as much on it for physical specters like Ethan’s does. However, because of how many that Mark has, if put all together then we have much more than Ethan does. Ethan has more to spare for the little things.”

“Interesting.” And it really was. Mark would honestly love to learn more about it all, but that could come later.

“So would you all care to explain why you all decided to bring him here with neither mine nor Dark’s permission?” Mark asked the two of them.

Unus and Annus glanced uncertainly at each other. Annus said, “I don’t know if we can. Or, at least, we can only tell  _ him.” _ Annus gestured to Mark. 

“What?” Fischbach seemed to be torn asunder, “Why can’t we know?”

“Yeah, how come only I can know?” Mark would really appreciate being kept in the loop and having people that he could talk to about things.

The black and white Egos seemed to carry out a silent conversation before Unus relented. “We’ve seen the future.”

Everyone had a collective blink. “You’ve  _ what?” _ Ethan demanded. “Since when was that a thing that you could do?”

“Yeah, that sounds like much more of a Host thing.” Fischbach and Ethan shared in their astonishment.

“Well, it is. A Host thing, I mean. But we’ve always been able to see when things end, and we saw quite the ending.”

“An ending?” Fischbach looked ashen faced at Amy, Ethan, then Mark. “What kind of ending?”

Annus looked regretful. “I’m afraid that we can’t tell you.”

“And what does that have to do with Mark?” Fischbach gestured over his shoulder at Mark.

“Absolutely everything. We can’t tell you when, or where, or how, but it was of utmost importance that he learn all of this now, rather than later.”

“And how does the Host come into it?” The Host hadn’t moved an inch from when he first appeared, but he was still muttering under his breath. “Why was he necessary in this?”

Unus leaned forward and put his elbows on the table, fingers steepled together. “All that we could do was see the end, but the Host could see the motions between the beginning and the end. He most certainly hasn’t told us everything, but we knew enough that we needed to get Mark here; he needed to learn what he could about Egos as soon as was feasible, timeline wise.”

Ethan asked, “How come only Mark was sent to the future if this ending has to do with the both of us?”

Annus gave him a sardonic smile, “Well, Mark gets his Egos much sooner than you do, he has more contacts than you do, which he will need, but the main reason is that we only had enough power between the two of us to bring one person to and from here.”

Ethan nodded in understanding, but Mark was still confused about something, “Wait, but if these are all things that I need to do and remember, then how come Mark doesn’t remember any of it? Wouldn’t he be able to stop this end, or whatever if he could remember it?”

The duo glanced at each other again and Annus answered. “No. Because we can’t tell our Mark about it, because we saw it happening and he didn’t know that it would happen, so we can’t have him be informed about it. We can tell  _ you _ though, because you aren’t the same Mark as the one now. You aren’t from this world, but another. Your future is not yet written.”

“So I  _ am _ from an alternate reality then, and not just the past?” This was all kinda mind blowing, if he were being honest.

Fischbach’s eyes boggled, “Do you have any idea what this means in the realm of science?! This confirms and denies  _ so _ many theories!”

The death duo seemed unimpressed, but surprisingly, it was Amy who spoke up. “I don’t think that that is the primary issue here, Mark.”

Fischbach waved his arms wildly, “Yeah, but- but,” He sputtered, “Alright then…”

“They all took a moment to compose themselves after the revelation of such a scientific impossibility, all the while the Host’s voice became steadily louder and easier to hear. All in the room turned to face the Host, inquiringly, and the elder Mark motioned for the Host to proceed and say his bit.” The Host took in a breath.

“After the Host has finished speaking and all have said what they wish to the younger Mark will be sent back to his own time in his own world. He will forget everything about his stay here and wake as though nothing had changed so as to make all of the same imperative decisions as he did in this world. In time, however, he shall remember his visit and make use of mental instructions that he shall find when he needs it. When the time comes for him to play his part he shall know what to do and how to do it.

“The elder Mark asked of the Host-”

“So I am to take it that you were the one orchestrating this whole affair?”

“The Host confirmed his assumption and paused yet again as Annus leaned forward and asked-”

“And you’re sure that you can’t tell us exactly what you’ve seen will happen?”

“The Host again answered in confirmation, everyone in the room having adequate knowledge of the function of paradoxes and knowing not to mess with fate. A somber note filled the room as….” 

The Host’s voice dropped back down to a whisper and was hardly audible.

Mark silently gulped, “So I guess this is goodbye?”

Amy stood and they all moved to copy her, everyone but the Egos, that is. “Goodbye for now, not forever.”

Mark smiled, “Well, I sure hope not, it was lovely getting to know you.”

“Oh, come over here,” Mark stepped forward and they hugged. Mark couldn’t wait to get an Amy of his own, and he was willing to wait for it.

Fischbach cleared his throat and Mark turned to him. “Well, I guess that I’ll see you in ten years, your time.”

Mark groaned at Fischbach’s good natured smile, “Don’t remind me. There’s so much to do, and I won’t even remember what it is that I have to do.”

They clasped hands in a firm handshake. “At least you’ll have the intuition to do it. But I wouldn’t be the person I am now without having not known what was going to happen, so it’s all for the best.”

The Host had stopped talking.

“I suppose so.”

Ethan stepped forward, and shook hands with Mark, “It was great meeting you, It’s so strange seeing you younger than me.”

Mark laughed, “I guess it would be for you, wouldn’t it?” He stepped back from the table, smiling fondly at them all. He couldn’t wait to have all this for himself, and not just as an observer. “And I’ll see you guys later too?”

Unus and Annus nodded, Annus smiled up at him. “The time will come for all of us, but yours won’t be for some time.”

He snorted, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

No one really knew what to say. Well, it’s not as though these kinds of things happened every day. Fischbach said, “Just know that you can do it. Whenever you set your mind to something you can do it, and I know that you can. You’ve got this.”

* * *

It was snowing outside. Mark opened his eyes and sat up from his bed, stretching. He had the strangest dream last night, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. Shame.

* * *

The monitor blipped, just like it had all those weeks ago. “Sir! I’ve got it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amount of times that I've rewritten this demmed chapter....
> 
> Anywho, this was the last chapter of this story, the next one, chapter seventeen, will just be a list of all the Egos that I have down for Mark and all the little things that they do that directly affects Mark. I'll probably get more into their powers in the next book of this series.
> 
> ALSO: What Egos of Ethan's do you guys know about? I can only think of four and for the purposes of the next chapter and the next book I'd highly appreciate not missing any.
> 
> To say that this ended differently than I first planned would be the understatement of the week. I initially planned for Mark to find out about the whole YouTube thing on the first day and meet Ethan and Tyler in person before he met future Mark, suffice it to say that it didn't go that way at all.
> 
> I am currently plotting out the sequel to this, in which you'll find out about all the juicy little secrets that I've left you without answers to in this chapter. This is also the longest chapter I've made for this series, so hooray for that.
> 
> I'm so happy to have finished this. I haven't completed a fic in forever and now I finally have, it only took nearly twenty thousand words and exactly fifty pages.
> 
> I really would love to hear what you thought about this story, maybe review it a little? (Pun completely intended).


	17. The Altercations

Let me know if I’ve forgotten anyone and I’ll promptly add them. I will likely add more to this specific chapter as time goes on and I may or may not add more characters, but for now I’ll only be doing the characters that I know for sure are likely going to be in here.

Although I’ve only had Mark and Ethan in the story thus far, I’ve decided to include all the Creators’ Egos/Sides for your sake, and so you can know what to expect from them.

Keep in mind, this isn’t a list of powers; this is just a list of all their Egos/Sides that I know of and how they affect their Creator’s personality and/or senses/perception of reality.

I am aware that some of Mark’s are repeats, such as Dark and Damien, but that is because their individual characters are primarily different and have different effects on him. Same goes for the Googles, Jims, Wil, etc.

* * *

Mark Fischbach: (36)

  * Darkiplier- Shadows can feel overbearing or darker
  * Wilford Warfstache- Impulses to do the first thing that comes to mind, Accent
  * The Host- Thoughts and speech become clearer, more precise
  * The Author- Written words appear deformed or misshapen when not focused on
  * Dr Edward Iplier- Feeling of imminent doom, Dread
  * King of the Squirrels- Craving peanut butter, liking animals
  * Googles Blue, Yellow/Oliver, Red, and Green.- Flickers on screens (colored for each different android) (Flicker)
  * Bim Trimmer- Higher confidence and charisma
  * Bing and Mini Bing- Saying ‘dude’ and ‘bro’ more, sensitivity about height, orange Flickers (rare)
  * Ed Edgar- Impulsive accents, when looking at something he may think about how much said thing would sell for over the Black Market
  * Silver Shepherd- Internal confliction
  * Yandereplier- Almost violent jealousy
  * Jim and Jim- Interest in weather and current events (RJ and CJ)
  * Randall Voorhees- Accent, preferring longer hair
  * Eric Derekson- Fidgeting, feelings of inadequacy, liking animals
  * Santaplier- Appreciation for holidays, dislike of appreciation
  * Yancy- Enjoyment of sing, Accent
  * Illinois James- Narcissistic arrogance, casually flamboyant
  * Captain Magnum- Accent, self consciousness about height
  * The Actor/Marc Iplier/ Markiplier- Narcissistic Arrogance
  * Chef Iplier- Cooking
  * Derek Derekson- Charisma and apathy
  * Mike Schmidt (FNaF Mark)- Paranoia about mannequins
  * Annus- Ticking Clocks, Dread
  * Harold Benis Derrensworth- Appreciation for order and rules, dislike of everything else
  * Mayor Damien- Need to be in control and make his own choices
  * William J Barnum- Accent, military posture
  * Merik/Mermer/Merkiplier- Better at seeing underwater (definitely not at swimming though lol)
  * Elliot (eBoy Mark)- Really likes oranges
  * Artiplier/Artie- Accent, colors are brighter/easier to differentiate
  * Hee Hoo- Impulsiveness, terrible posture  


* * *




Ethan Nestor: (11)

  * Blankgameplays- Makes shadows darker, likes dark clothes
  * Mad Mike- Huge sweet tooth, humming
  * Heapass- Disregard for the rules, takes no disrespect
  * Jake- Prefers the company of others in the form of activities (bowling, camping, golf, etc)
  * Bernice- Enjoys wearing makeup
  * Father Ethan/The Saint- More empathetic of others
  * Yahoo- Prefers the site Yahoo to Google, purple Flickers
  * The Postman- Prefers receiving letters rather than texts or emails
  * Unus- Ticking clocks, Dread
  * Challenge McGee- Looks for the hardest way through a situation
  * Mrs Thomson- Accent, wants people to conquer their fears

* * *




Seán McLoughlin: (11)

  * Antisepticeye- Disregard for self preservation, equipment glitches, green Flickers
  * Marvin the Magnificent- Adoration of cats
  * Chase Brody- Negative thoughts, enjoyment of alcohol
  * Dr Henrik Von Schneeplestein- Perceptive, cleanliness, Accent
  * Jackieboy-Man- Boldness
  * Jameson Jackson- Animate hand gestures
  * Robbie the Zombie- Empathetic
  * S34N: Tech savvy, blue mint Flickers
  * Shawn Flynn: Accent, keen color coordination
  * Jacques Septique- Accent, individualism
  * Angus the Survival Hunter- Accent, proficient with weapons



(Did you know that out of all the ones listed, at least four of them are something other than Irish? It’s interesting to think about.)

* * *

Thomas Sanders: (9)

  * Patton/Morality (Blue)- Empathetic, puns galore
  * Logan/Logic (Indigo)- Wisdom, drawing on past knowledge with ease, controls Thomas’ right arm
  * Roman/Passion (Red)- Confidence, optimistic, controls Thomas’ left arm
  * Virgil/Anxiety (Violet)- Alert, constant vigilance
  * Janus/Denial (Yellow)- Self preservation
  * Remus/Creativity (Green)- Intrusive thoughts
  * Orange- ???
  * Remy- Sassy, addicted to coffee and naps
  * Emile Picani- Cartoon enthusiast, negotiator



(We know that Orange exists, but we have no knowledge about him. For the time being he will be there, but not prevalent for the story. I, personally, like to think of Remy as Orange and Picani as Pink, but they are, of course, non canon.)

* * *

Matthew Patrick: (3)

  * Madpat- Manic enthusiasm, plotting
  * AntiMatter- Sharp perception, fast recollection and memory, quick with a computer
  * Hermit- forgetfulness of social cues, manic enthusiasm  


* * *




Nathan Sharp: (2)

  * Natemare- People are entrance by his singing, feels edgy
  * Phantom- Charismatic, selfish

* * *




Vetoed Egos:

  * Mossiplier- I almost added him in, but as he seems to be exclusive to the Markipler Discord I figured 98% of you wouldn’t know about him or have access to him and his lore so with a heavy heart I vetoed him.
  * Goopiplier- Umm…
  * Corroded Crank- I thought about including him, but the only video I could find of him seemed under consensus to call him Blank, so…
  * Bingsepticeye- I wouldn’t want for Bingiplier and Bingsepticeye to be confused and S34N was the one that seemed more prevalent to me in the fandom, but tbh, both of their designs are breathtaking.

* * *




Vetoed Characters:

This is a list of Creators that will probably have cameos and have their own “Alters” but only in association with the main Alter Creators.

  * Felix- I could only find two or so actual Egos of his (Infelix/Pewdiepie and Pewdiebot) and I don’t really see him becoming a huge part of the story. His Egos are so little known that it wouldn’t be relevant plot wise anyways.
  * Tyler- He only really has Xyler and although he was made up by the Group, he hasn’t caught any drift in the fandom at all.
  * The Creators from the Darkiplier Vs Antisepticeye video- It kind of speaks for itself.
  * Chica- As much as we love Dark!Chica I don’t think that our pup will be having much more than a cameo here.



* * *

I think that I got all of them, but let me know if I didn’t. I will stress right now though not to expect to see all of the Alters included in the story, especially not all of Mark’s. There are plenty of Egos/Sides I’ve listed here that although they will be there in their Creator’s head, they won’t be making an appearance or be of any importance to the plot. This is half a list of characters so you’ll know who exists here and who doesn’t and half a list of notes for myself so I can plan the story accordingly.

I’m not going to give you any chapters of the new story just yet no matter how much I’m itching to just write it. I’m going to be spending a lot of time plotting this out before writing it and really figure out where it’s going and how to get it there. I don’t think that it’ll take any longer than a few weeks to a month, though.


	18. News!

Just an announcement for those that only follow this story, but the Sequel is now out!

I figured that you guys would want to be notified when it happened. I'm not sure yet how long it's going to be, or how long it will take to finish, but just know that it is for sure going to be quite a bit longer than this one. I am so excited to get it all out there, I'm sure you're all going to love it!


End file.
